President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s democracy must be measured by its ability to deliver real, material improvements in people’s lives
South Africa’s 32nd Freedom Day highlights both democratic gains and ongoing struggles with inequality, unemployment and poverty
To realise systemic change, we must insist on accountability at the highest levels of leadership, while also enabling those in positions of power to rise to the demands of this moment
Leaving the township can change your surroundings but unlearning the fear it taught your body is where the real work of freedom begins
The ANC president was the quiet architect of liberation,
carrying a people through the long wilderness of exile, sustaining
hope when the promised land seemed impossibly distant
The death of Spokes Sithole at 108 exposes the broken promise of one of South Africa’s largest land restitution settlements, where freedom and land ownership have not translated into lasting prosperity for many beneficiaries
The democratic breakthrough of 1994 stands as one of the most significant political achievements of the modern era. Against the odds, South Africa chose negotiation over civil conflict, ballots over bullets, reconciliation over revenge
If we are to honour our freedom, we must also stand in sympathy with our neighbours, whose struggles remind us that democracy is never guaranteed. Their pain must be felt as our own and their hopes embraced as part of our shared destiny
When foreign governments, organisations or political networks speak about offering South African farmers land, visas or farming opportunities abroad, they should define farming skill through competence rather than ownership
As we commemorate freedom, a familiar chorus returns: that
South Africa has too many ‘race laws’, that redress has gone
too far, that equality now demands forgetting
The protests rejected this. They insisted that what we are seeing is the expansion of a single logic: imperial in character, colonial in structure, even when it speaks the language of democracy, security and humanitarian concern
Across South Africa, communities are marking Freedom Day under the weight of an escalating water crisis, where unreliable supply, contamination and ageing infrastructure continue to undermine basic rights and deepen inequality
Freedom is not just about liberation from oppression. It is about the work of restoration. Of dignity. Of truth. It is about ensuring that no one remains missing, not in body, not in memory, not in the story of our nation
About 32% of the population is unemployed; of the employed, 35.9% are in informal work; and of the formally employed, nearly 40% earn less than R3,500 a month
Freedom is not about slogans or votes, it is something we must make together by our actions, in a country inured to violence and a world where self-interest rules.
Here are three cultural things to listen to or watch
You leave your house at your own risk in the Cape Flats township. Motorists are a target, especially visitors. Gunshots are an everyday occurrence
The South African corporate world is difficult for most black people who lack cultural and social capital
The freedom to think independently, and allowing others the same freedom, is central to our democracy
Democratic freedom is a prize humanity can only maintain by constantly standing in unity to protect it against all odds
The time of lamenting about how backwards we have gone is over. We are now challenged with the responsibility of moving forward
A population disillusioned by broken promises of democracy in country beset by corruption, load-shedding, unemployment and inequality has little to celebrate
The founder of Black Consciousness kept evolving; by the time of his terrible death he was moving away from hard-line racial isolationism. DREW FORREST traces his development in a seminal collection of writings
It is hoped the regulations for the Domestic Violence Amendment Act strengthen the criminal justice and broader sociomedical systemic response to domestic violence
The emphasis on Freedom Day should be on recapturing what we dreamed freedom would mean for everyone in this country
It’s not enough to be colour blind, we must look at reality and act to stop racism
A message to South Africa from European friends for Freedom Day
Without an accurate understanding of the dilemmas which overwhelm us, our efforts to produce effective and far-reaching strategies or solutions for change will fail
For Jewish people, ‘You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.’ South Africans should remember they were once strangers in their own country
We need to be free from gross inequalities and have a responsibility to change this through compassion, justice and sacrifice
April 27 1994 set us on the path to freedom; but much must still be undone – and new problems await us
Albert Adams worked in self-imposed obscurity, but his work speaks boldly for himself and others