THIRTY-TWO YEARS OF FREEDOM DAY – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ORDINARY CITIZENS

By AZAPO Department of Publicity and Information

South Africa is today celebrating 32 years of “freedom” that was ushered in after the
historic vote in 1994.

Throngs of queues that snake at various centres of the country of our people excited and eager to vote for a democratically elected government are still vivid in our minds.

The euphoria was palpable and it was understandable given the years oppression
and slavery that the majority black people experienced under apartheid.

The Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) was not blinded by the façade and was able to see through the mirage.

It was clear to AZAPO that our people were taken for a ride, and sadly with the help of those that professed to liberate them.

In hindsight maybe it’s important to interrogate if those that professed to have liberated black people understood what liberation is.

A Dream Deferred Many of those who stood in those long queues had special dreams.

They conceptualized their dreams, visualized those dreams and believed that Nelson Mandela was the messiah
who was going to make those dreams a reality.

Many of the black people dreamt of taking over houses occupied by white people and the farms. To most of those black people freedom was supposed to be tangible not abstract, elusive and difficult to pin down.

Freedom or liberation was to be physical and clear to the eyes.

Mandela assumed office as the first black president in democracy.

He soon appreciated the limitations placed by a negotiated settlement.

Key to those limitations was the absence of the land and economic means of production.

For Mandela to provide free education, health care, housing, employment and other necessities as promised, he had to seek the benevolence and buy in of those who control the land, the economy and the means of production.

This reality meant he had to manage the aspirations and expectations of Black people.

He had to make Black people understand that
there is a need for patience and that their dreams will have to be deferred and
postponed to an unknown later date.

What did 1994 achieve?

There are some black youths who believe very strongly that 1994 achieved nothing.

They believe that 1994 depoliticized the youth and rendered them docile in the
liberation that they were supposed to take central stage.

Others like the SACP believe 1994 was but a democratic breakthrough which was supposed to be followed by the national democratic revolution. Being in an alliance with the ANC that believed 1994 was genuine liberation, placed them at loggerheads.

AZAPO on the other hand called for the boycott of the 1994 election and did not
even take part in those elections because it strongly believed that those elections were not based on the bare minimum demands of the people.

AZAPO was firm in her belief that:

➢ Not liberation of freedom can be sustained unless based on land;
➢ Negotiations held over a barrel of the gun on a venue that was not neutral were
not free and fair as they favoured the white minority regime;
➢ A constituent assembly, of elected representatives of the citizens, was best placed
to craft the constitution.
➢ Liberation movements are to constitute a patriotic front to ensure that there was
no selling out.

It came to pass that AZAPO’s views and principled position did not gain traction
because some among the liberation movements were eager to take up office and be
sworn in, leaving the masses behind.

What is liberation (freedom)?

Dr. Myles Munroe taught that deliverance and liberation (freedom) are two distinct
concepts, often emphasizing that many people are delivered but not yet free.

He further argues that deliverance is a physical act or event, while liberation is a mental state and a process of transforming one’s mindset.

According to Munroe, deliverance is the removal of the oppressed from the environment of the oppressor.

It is the physical breaking of chains and the separation of a person from the condition of slavery.

He uses the Egypt metaphor of the Exodus that deliverance was leaving Egypt (the physical and geographic relocation).

He further argues that deliverance prepares a person for freedom, but it is not freedom itself.

He calls it the “wilderness stage” necessarily a transitional phase, not the destination. Munroe also defines what liberation is.

He says it is when “Egypt leaves your mind”, rather than just leaving Egypt geographically.

It is the state of mental, emotional and
spiritual release from the habits and thoughts of oppression.

He states that true freedom is achieved through the discovery of information or the truth.

Munroe emphasized that freedom is much harder than slavery because it requires self-control, responsibility, taking charge of one’s destiny and the destruction of a slave mentality.

Steve Biko was miles ahead of his time because he prophesied about 1994 and
warned us against confusing freedom with mere change of white faces (for Black
faces) and furniture at the Union Buildings and believing that we are free.

Unlike Munroe, Biko believed that once the mind is free from the shackles of slavery it will
bring about deliverance.

It is only a free mind that can free itself from oppression.

The greatest challenge is not escaping the oppressor but changing the mindset of the
oppressed. Conference of the Left
AZAPO has heed the call to join the Conference of the Left.

This is a conference that
is expected to reset the course of liberation and reclaim the agenda from neo-colonial
powers that be and restore it to the forces on the left.

ANC cannot escape the fact
that it has been captured by the forces of doom and forced to follow a neo-liberal
path.

Liberation movements that have lost their direction and captured by neo-colonialism
are characterized by wanton corruption and failure to listen to the cries of the poor.

When the poor rise to demand what was promised and what is legitimately due to
them the response of the captured forces like the ANC is to use violence and power
to suppress the will of the people.

AZAPO believes that the high levels of poverty, unemployment, drug and human
trafficking, socio-economic decline and rising costs of living, are all signs of a neo- colonial failed state.

We find ourselves in that condition precisely because we failed
to do the right thing in 1994. Now with the dwindling support of the ANC, we see the
rise of right-wing forces in SA with the Afri-Forum taking centre stage.

We also see
the rise in the move to have Western Cape as a separate country with the help of
right-wing forces from Israel.

These groups are also winning support from the Trump
administration.

This can be seen with the capitulation of Ramaphosa with the
appointment of Roelf Meyer as the ambassador to US.

All these developments call
upon us to drive the agenda for change and refuse to be spectators in a game that
determines our future.

NOT YET UHURU!!!