Freedom Day Edition 2026
latest news & developments
SA marks 32 years of democracy amid deep inequality and joblessness
South Africa’s 32nd Freedom Day highlights both democratic gains and ongoing struggles with inequality, unemployment and poverty
Dearth of State briefing; death of black legal practice
Discriminatory procurement practices keep black law firms small, while many black advocates are forced to leave the Bar. LPC statistics for 2024 show that the largest majority…
The sound of freedom is not silence
Leaving the township can change your surroundings but unlearning the fear it taught your body is where the real work of freedom begins
From freedom to looting
Explosive testimony before the Madlanga Commission has laid bare allegations of cartel-linked corruption involving senior police officials and municipal departments, raising…
Oliver Tambo: The quiet architect of liberation and the Moses of a nation in exile
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
Fruit of freedom withers under broken land deal
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…
Nomsa Mazwai’s sober fest reimagines how we celebrate
A Freedom Day weekend gathering at the Soweto Theatre, where families are invited to experience music, food and wellness, fully present and fully sober
Three decades on: Assessing South Africa’s Progress since 1994
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…
Freedom in South Africa is incomplete until all SADC nations achieve genuine democracy
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…
Freedom, memory and the curious outrage of comfortable men
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
We stand with Cuba, our friend
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…
The great white farmer myth distorts black agrarian input
When foreign governments, organisations or political networks speak about offering South African farmers land, visas or farming opportunities abroad, they should define farming…
No freedom without water
Across South Africa, communities are marking Freedom Day under the weight of an escalating water crisis, where unreliable supply, contamination and ageing infrastructure continue…
A nation still waiting to come home
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,…
Democracy doubts deepen in KZN
Support for democracy in KwaZulu-Natal has fallen to its lowest levels in decades, with trust in government and institutions collapsing. Yet, most residents say they would vote…