The history of Mzantsi 20 years later continues.....

In 1994 South Africa managed to get its independence from an Apartheid regime which was mostly controlled by white supremacy after a negotiated settlement agreed at Kempton Park. It was after CODESA 1 failed to reach an agreement by all those political parties that were invited to participate in shaping the South Africa that we see today. One of the mostly critical agenda items was the question of the land, how will be the land shared among all South Africa who live in it. The PAC was of the view that white settlers should be expelled from the land and that the land should be taken back to its rightful owners, blacks who have suffered for the past 300 years or more. It is a well known fact that only 13% of the land was allocated to blacks by those architects of Apartheid and that blacks were slaves in their own land and that white supremacy created a divide and rule principle. This was the turning point in the Kempton Park resolutions and that some of those from the PAC felt that the Property rights only protected whites as it was with their own terms and that they should continue owning those farms which were allocated to them by the National Party.

Despite these challenges our founding fathers of the South Africa Today fought for the principle that there should not be any war even though there were fights that were there even early before the dawn of democracy manifested in your train killings, Boipatong, SADF killing innocent people during 1990 to 1993. This was seen when to leaders of the Kempton Park resolutions not seeing eye to eye during this time in that Mandela on one side would protect the operations of Umkhonto we Sizwe and De Klerk would defend the operation of the third force led by the SADF. Later AWB also came into the picture by demolition the Kempton Park entrance claiming that Afrikaners were under attack by these negotiations that were held at that venue.

To fast track the process we see all parties agreeing to take part in the first democratic elections which were held on the 27 April 1994 where the ANC managed to secure a majority win in those elections with the birth of the democracy that we now all enjoy today. Mr Nelson Mandela was elected President of the country, the first black President since Jan Van Reebeck came into this land. The task ahead was not going to be easy as all members of the society were looking living the Freedom Charter, “South Africa belongs to all those who live in it”, was this going to be achieved? The purpose of this exercise is to look at South Africa 20 years later, what has happened? Have we managed to gain the principles of the Freedom Charter? Why do we have so many agendas in the rule of South Africa Today? Why there are so many political parties contesting elections every time we have elections? These are some but fey questions that this exercise will try to look into as we celebrate the 20 years of freedom from slavery and oppression by white supremacy.

In 1996 a Constitution of South Africa was agreed upon and signed by President Mandela in Sharpville which was celebrated by most sectors of our societies from the Religious, Business, Labour, NGOs, youth, and so on. Does this constitution need to be reviewed after 20 years? Are we still on the right track? Some of the research that I have conducted will include the some members of the churches who are of the opinion that this Constitution does not serve the interest that they thought it would bring by these freedoms that we enjoy today especially on the same sex mirages, freedom gained by foreign nationals, moral decay, children rights, and all the social ills that we face today, 20 years later after the democracy that we celebrate today. Roman Dutch law is seen as dominating the courts than the Customary Traditional law, is this good or a challenge as we witness more rape cases and abuse of children than it was the case during the years of Apartheid. If everyone has a right to live in this country, why do we have more violent abuse against women, children and the most vulnerable members of our society if this Constitution was intended to protect them? Why do criminals have more rights than the law abiding citizens? Why it is so easy for criminals to escape their punishment and come back to communities and repeat the same offences if this Constitution was intended to protect the majority of citizens? These were some of the questions that we need to be asking ourselves as we celebrate 20 years of our democracy.

My research on this topic also looks at the role that politicians play in the challenges that we face as a nation in that have they managed to assist the nation in addressing the social ills that we face or have they added salt in the wound. How long does it take for a nation to achieve social cohesion and start building the nation that was envisaged by our founding fathers when they created this Constitution that we celebrate 20 years later? My focus then looks at the ruling political party, the ANC as it has managed to create platforms for all of us to participate in shaping the democracy that we would want to see today. I have also looked at the role played by media, the opposition parties, state institutions, civil society, and ordinary citizens and residents. Read more about this at http://zolisamemani.com/2013/10/29/the-confidence-in-the-justice-system/

South Africa has a rich history and a story to tell for other nations to learn from its experience since democracy was established in 1994, are we telling those stories to please our masters or are telling those stories to teach our next generations to learn and improve in the challenges that we face as a nation. It will not help all of us if we will keep on distorting to facts from reality. Do we want people to believe that we are celebrating 20 years of our freedom while only a few selected individuals have managed to manipulate the situation and have used power to concoct reality from fact? The Constitution is one document that as ordinary citizens should have learnt and mustered but the reality is that, foreign nationals have managed to understand and know it more than ordinary citizens and have managed to use these gaps in benefiting from the freedom that was gained 20 years ago.

"There are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal triumph if you have the iron will and the necessary skill." ~ Nelson Mandela from a letter to Zindzi Mandela, written on Robben Island, 25 March 1979. On this day, 5 September 1984 Nelson Mandela noted that he consulted with urologist Dr Loubsche. When we look at the achievements gained by the ANC government since 1994 proves that a lot was done in changing people's lives to the better with challenges such as leadership. At this stage, we are not supposed to be having poor leadership, moral decay, social cohesion, economic transformation, and so on if people were taking responsibility of their actions as in accountability and transparent to each other. Now that everyone is aware that the taxi driver did not have PDP when they came on board, they must not blame him/her for the accident. It will only be damage control that will remedy the situation as we move forward, but will they have confidence for the next driver?