What does it take to really be free?

It’s 20 years after we’ve achieved true democracy. We’ve just been at the voting polls, and we know what our future holds for the next five years, at least.

But, has South Africa obtained its freedom? This heavy question was up for discussion at Lovebooks in Melville on Tuesday evening.

“Well, no,” Lawrence Hamilton, author of Are South Africans Free? replied matter-of-factedly. “Obviously, we’re not free yet. Political freedom remains elusive for us. But the reasons for this might not be as clear-cut as you’d think.”

Hamilton, who lives in Melville, is a professor in politics at the University of Wits, and also a lecturer in politics and international science at Cambridge University.

“How can we go through this miracle, this wondrous rainbow nation, and find that almost nothing has changed?” he wondered.

“Inequality is the same, if not worse than before, because the underlying structures haven’t changed.”

Even the wealthy in South Africa do not have complete freedom, Hamilton said.

“We tend to think of freedom as something that belongs only to individuals,” he explained.

“But our capability to carry out political and economic activity is interdependent on others. We have an incredibly unequal society still structured by apartheid geography.”

“The rich think they can gain their freedom behind their high walls and their barbed wire electrified fences. They think they can move from their highly privatised homes to their highly privatised malls. But reality bites. Crime and unrest are lurking just behind those tall walls. That’s not freedom.”

Being free, he said, is not just about human rights.

The South African Constitution is an obstacle in the path of real freedom, Hamilton offered. “Ironically, the compromise reached between the African National Congress and the National Party was a compromise between two elites. Both these parties didn’t adhere to some of the principals of human rights in their history. We believe that our constitution must be sovereign – above parliament and human rights based. However, that’s not how it works everywhere, it’s not necessarily right.”

The constitution doesn’t have to be the way we’ve made it, Hamilton emphasised.

He posed a more pertinent question. “What sort of institution would give us greater freedom than we have now?”

“We don’t have much power over the people going into parliament. The book argues that proportional representation and sovereignty should be returned to parliament. I’m not suggesting that the courts can’t play a role, but there are divisions and disputes in politics that can be resolved without the court.” The flippant answer, he said, is that you get the democracy you asked for.

He joked that he would put his red beret on for a question posed about economic freedom, and how it would improve the life of the poor people.

“There’s no argument for nationalisation,” Hamilton said simply.

What model would work for South Africa then? “I have the highly successful Scandinavian welfare-model in mind,” Hamilton said. “The fundamental truth of the welfare state is that it enables people not to have to worry about the basic amenities, and that it transforms their lives, enables them to become better. Brazil is also a model of a moderately successful welfare state in the last few years – of course, lately they’ve had problems – but generally, they’re on a path that we can try to emulate.”

And what is freedom, really? “Freedom is power,” Hamilton answered. “True freedom is the power to act against the norm and in different conditions.”

The late Nelson Mandela also has an answer to that question. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

*Are South Africans Free? by Lawrence Hamilton is available from Bloomsbury Publishers and costs R300.