‘SA family’: Mixed reactions to Ramaphosa’s Freedom Day speech

In an emotional plea for national unity on Freedom Day yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa likened the country to “a large South African family”.

Ramaphosa said despite quarrels, disagreements and fights, “when times are bad, a family pulls together”.

Ramaphosa’s Freedom Day speech

His message resonated with a number of people in Matlosana in Klerksdorp in the North West, who were beaming with hope, excitement and optimism for a broader transformation.

Despite yesterday being dubbed “a day of reflecting on broken promises”, for many it marked a new chapter of hope, as the president promised government was hard at work trying to address all the issues the country was facing.

The residents came out in their numbers – old and young – to join Ramaphosa and Deputy President Paul Mashatile for festivities, food and dancing.

‘Much more work to do’

Ramaphosa said the country could not be free unless challenges – such as load shedding – were dealt with, as there was still a long way to go before “we can enjoy our freedom”.

“We have still much more work to do; poverty, unemployment and inequality still define the lives of millions of South Africans today,” he said.

Ramaphosa said while the benefits of the progress made were not yet felt, especially with load shedding unabated, “we will soon experience the impact of the unprecedented investment being made in new power generation”.

“When we emerge from this crisis, our energy system will have been fundamentally transformed. It will be more stable, more reliable, more affordable and more sustainable,” he said.

No progress in SA

Political analyst Professor Amanda Gouws said SA had not made progress.

“We still have high levels of unemployment, poverty, [a] gender-based violence crisis, and now we’re known as a country that does not even have electricity”.

“So what we have is a very dysfunctional government that is unable to govern,” she said.

“We have really just traded one oppressive government for a government that cannot govern.

Backsliding of democracy

“I don’t know exactly what we have gained, we are just looking here at the backsliding of democracy and there’s no sense of deconsolidation.

“We only have a strong constitution and judicial system and I think that’s our only saving grace.”

Economist Professor Jannie Rossouw said after former President Thabo Mbeki’s tenure, SA had been on its worst economic trajectory, “so we lost any sort of progress we might have made along the way”.

Mpho Moako from Orange Farm, agreed with Ramaphosa and said while there was still a long way to go, she was confident he would turn things around.

“We are not where we want to be yet, but I believe Ramaphosa will get us to where we need to be,” she said.

Exploitation, apartheid and dispossession

The community – which had been battered by crime, poverty, water shortages, youth unemployment and housing crisis for decades – was, according to Ramaphosa, fitting for a national celebration because “it carries both the pain of our past and the promise of our future”.

“The site of a concentration camp for Africans during the Anglo-Boer War, Matlosana has a history of dispossession and exploitation,” Ramaphosa said.

“Matlosana was home to a mining industry which, under apartheid, was responsible for the exploitation of mineworkers, paying them a pittance and exposing them to terrible working and living conditions.”

Freedom Day speech a ‘slap in the face’

However, other residents and experts argued it was a shame the president felt it was fitting, as people in the area were still struggling and living in terrible conditions.

“I don’t see what the excitement is about; we are still how we were when we woke up.

“No one who was unemployed this morning is employed now. This was just a waste of money and time,” resident Solomon Mathabatha said.

The 36-year-old said Ramaphosa’s speech was a slap in the face of the community members and South Africans at large.

SA in a ‘setback’

Mathabatha noted what the president said during his address: “He said our country has been hit by a global financial crisis; political, social and economic shocks; worsening natural disasters; and the most severe global pandemic in over a century and these setbacks have made the devastating apartheid legacy of inequality worse, but it didn’t start now.

“We have been living in this ‘setback’ all our lives, some people have not worked a day in their lives and not because they don’t want to but because there aren’t any jobs.

“We haven’t had proper service delivery for more than a decade and if we still regard that as a setback then I guess we deserve the bare minimum we are not getting from the ruling party.”

Additional reporting by Eric Naki