Elections 2014News

Freedom Day: Madiba said it all

The words of the wise seldom become out of date.

FREEDOM Day, April 27,  commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. They were the first national elections in South Africa in which the franchise did not depend upon race.

The enormity of this day in the history of South Africa is best summed up by the late P resident Nelson Mandela at the first Freedom Day celebrations, one year later, on April 27,1995, at the Union Buildings, Pretoria.

“If any one day marked the crossing of the divide from a past of conflict and division to the possibility of unity and peace; from inequality to equality; from a history of oppression to a future of freedom, it is 27 April 1994.

“On this day, you, the people, took your destiny into your own hands. You decided that nothing would prevent you from exercising your hard-won right to elect a government of your choice. Your patience, your discipline, your single-minded purposefulness have become a legend throughout the world.

“You won this respect because you made the simple but profound statement that the time had come for the people to govern.

“You turned our diversity from a weakness to be exploited for selfish ends; into a richness to be celebrated for the good of all. Today, we meet to reaffirm that we are one people with one destiny; a destiny that we can now shape together from the sweat of our brows.

“We have learnt over the first freedom year that there is no short-cut to making South Africa the country of our dreams.

“It requires hard work by those entrusted with positions of responsibility in government. It demands that workers and employers work together to produce efficiently and compete with the best in the world, to achieve equity and to help create more jobs. It requires hard work on the part of farmers and farm-workers, to feed the nation and provide raw materials, even in the face of adversity.

“It requires hard work by students and teachers to build a literate, skilled and learned nation.

It requires greater exertion by our sports-persons and artists to always offer the best for the country and its people. It demands of all of us, wherever we may be, to exercise our rights as citizens; and do so without infringing on the rights of others.

“Over the past year we have confounded the prophets of doom; and we shall do so for many, many more years to come. Enriched by the experience of the first freedom year, let us work together, with each other and for each other.”

One Comment

  1. Mr nelson mandela said it all but its so sad as his fellow comrades r not keepin his legacy its da community dat is doin der job of keepin da legacy. His comrades r diggin his name dwn da drain sorry to say

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