How South Africa has been transformed by 30 years of freedom

Johannesburg :Thirty years ago, the South African miracle came true. Millions voted in the country’s first democratic elections, seemingly delivering a death blow to apartheid.

The African National Congress rose to power under the leadership of Nelson Mandela and used The Freedom Charter, a decades-old manifesto, as a guide to forming a new nation.

The African National Congress won the 1994 election on the promise of “a better life for all.” But for many that promise has fallen short. Polls now suggest that in the election scheduled for May 29, the party risks losing its absolute majority in the national government for the first time.

We went through The Freedom Charter’s declarations to measure South Africa’s progress and shortcomings over the past 30 years.

The deal

The people shall govern!

The reality

Democracy is stable, but South Africans are disillusioned, and most no longer vote.

On a continent where coups, autocrats and flawed elections have become common, South Africa is a widely admired exception.

Since 1994, the country has held national elections every five years, with local elections in between. Presidents have changed, but the party in power — the ANC — never has. Despite this, there have never been any serious doubts about the integrity of those electoral contests.

Despite the electoral stability, politics have been dangerous. Fierce conflict within the ANC has resulted in many assassinations over the years. The ANC’s access to state resources as the governing party has fueled many of the disputes and led to widespread corruption.

The enrichment of ANC leaders while many people barely earn enough to feed themselves has shaken the faith of many South Africans in their democratic system.

The deal

All national groups shall have equal rights!

The reality

Society is free and equal on paper, but economic barriers endure.

Under apartheid, race restricted every aspect of life for South Africans who were Black, Indian and colored — a multiracial classification created by the government. There were strict limits on where they could live, attend school, work and travel. Laws enforced this segregation, and partaking in politics was criminalized.

But the democratic government drafted a constitution that enshrined equal rights for all.

South Africa has become a place where people of all races often dine, worship and party together. Gay rights are largely accepted. There is a free and vigorous press, and protests and open political debate are a part of life.

But many of the economic barriers created under apartheid still endure.

The World Bank has ranked South Africa as the most unequal country in the world. Ten percent of the population holds about 71 per cent of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 60 per cent holds 7 per cent of assets, according to the World Bank.

The deal

The people shall share in the country’s wealth!

The reality

A wide economic gulf persists between Black and white South Africans.

The Black middle and upper classes have grown significantly. In 1995, 350,000 Black South Africans lived in households that were among the top 15 per cent in income, according to researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing. By 2022, that number had grown to about 5.6 million.

Still, Black families are underrepresented among rich households, and much of the nation’s wealth remains in white hands.

Black South Africans had a stake in only 29 per cent of the companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, according to a 2022 report by South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment Commission. Not a single entity on the exchange was fully Black-owned, the report said.

The ideal

The land shall be shared among those who work it!

The reality

White South Africans continue to own most of the land.

At the end of apartheid, when almost all of South Africa’s agricultural land was white-owned, Mandela’s government pledged to transfer 30 per cent of it into Black hands within a few years, by encouraging white landowners to sell.

The government failed to meet its goal, and it stretched the deadline to 2030. So far, about 25 per cent of white-owned farmland has been transferred to Black ownership, mostly through the purchase of land by the government or Black individuals, according to Wandile Sihlobo and Johann Kirsten, agricultural economists at Stellenbosch University.

White South Africans make up roughly 7 per cent of the population, but white-owned farms still cover about half of the country’s entire surface area, according to Sihlobo and Kirsten.

The ideal

There shall be work and security!

The reality

Unemployment has risen since the end of apartheid.

Black South Africans are unemployed at far higher rates than their white peers, and that disparity has not improved over time.

The high unemployment rate has given rise to a hustle culture that sends many South Africans to the streets early each morning in search of work.

Poverty has decreased since the start of democracy. Still, it remains very high. Nearly 2 out of every 3 Black South Africans lived below the upper-bound poverty line in 2015, meaning they had access to less than about $80 a month. Only 1 per cent of white South Africans lived below that line.

The ideal

There shall be houses, security and comfort!

The reality

Millions of new homes were constructed, but hardly enough.

Peter Mokoena broke down in tears in November inside the two-bedroom house that the government had just given him. It sat alongside dozens of other homes just like it, on the freshly paved roads of a new subdivision southeast of Johannesburg.

“I’m so happy, happy, happy, happy for this house,” said Mokoena, 74, who had been living in a tin shack so leaky that his furniture was soaked when it rained.

The government has built 3.4 million houses since 1994 and has given ownership of most of them free to poor South Africans.

Mokoena waited 27 years for his house. Many are still waiting. In the meantime, some squat in downtown buildings. Others build shacks in any open space they can find. Or they rent small backyard units built behind houses — an effort the government is supporting.

The ideal

The doors of learning and culture shall be opened!

The reality

Education is open to all, but quality and seats are falling short.

Nokuthula Mabe sat on her suitcase outside North-West University in the city of Mahikeng, waiting with about a dozen other high school graduates hoping for a spot. The university had received more than 181,000 applications for 11,717 slots.

In many ways, Mabe epitomized post-apartheid progress simply by graduating from her overcrowded village school near the Botswana border.

In the 1950s, only 10 per cent of Black children finished high school. By 2021, that number had risen to 58 per cent.

Although more children are finishing high school, there are not enough seats in colleges to meet the demand.

After waiting nervously for hours, Mabe, 18, dragged her suitcase to the nearest bus stop to begin the 3 1/2-hour trip back to her village. The university was too full to admit her.

The ideal

All shall be equal before the law!

The reality

Courts are widely seen as credible, but money makes a difference.

During apartheid, the judicial system was used to criminalize Black people, mete out harsh punishment and cover up the atrocities committed against them.

Today, the judiciary is seen as among the most credible institutions in the country. Judges have upheld human rights and taken tough stances against even powerful political figures.

Still, as in many other countries, the South African justice system works best for those with money.

The ideal

There shall be peace and friendship!

The reality

South Africa has grown bold in trying to shake up the Western-led world order.

Internationally, South Africa has tried to position itself as a broker of peace and a leader in challenging a Western-led world order.

South Africa is the “S” in the BRICS group of nations that also includes Brazil, Russia, India and China, formed as a counterpoint to American and European alliances.

South Africa has played a critical role over the years in peace missions in African countries such as Ethiopia, Burundi and Zimbabwe. And President Cyril Ramaphosa led a peace delegation last year to Ukraine and Russia, while refusing to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The ideal

All shall enjoy equal human rights!

The reality

But they will have to fight for it.

For all of the frustrations that South Africans may have about the past 30 years, democracy has brought something that money and data cannot measure: freedom.

As in, freedom to go where you want, to date whom you want, to complain and advocate change as loudly as you want.

That has driven Sibusiso Zikode, 48, for much of his adult life.

He arrived in Durban, a port city on South Africa’s east coast, and started law school, but dropped out in the first term when his family savings ran out.

He moved to a slum built on muddy slopes and surrounded by a landfill, joining thousands who had flocked to the city for opportunity, only to find themselves in shacks. This didn’t feel like freedom.

So, he helped to establish Abahlali baseMjondolo, a protest movement that is one of many that represent the revolt of poor people.

But going up against the post-apartheid political establishment has come at great cost: Leaders of Abahlali have been assassinated, and Zikode had to flee his home after deadly attacks.

Abahlali’s members are growing more disillusioned with democracy.

“Whoever is homeless now,” Zikode said, “will be homeless after the election.”