This Saturday, April 27, South Africa commemorates 30 years of freedom, reflecting on the historic day in 1994 when millions cast their ballots in the nation’s inaugural democratic elections. April 27 is celebrated annually as Freedom Day, symbolizing the end of apartheid, a brutal system of racial discrimination.
Nonki Kunene, 72, strolls through the halls of Thabisang Primary School in Soweto, reminiscing about the profound joy she and countless others experienced three decades ago as they exercised their voting rights for the first time. On April 27, 1994, Kunene, along with millions of South Africans, braved lengthy queues to participate in the democratic process, marking a significant milestone after years of white minority rule that deprived Black South Africans of fundamental rights.
Although the school has undergone transformations since that historic day, with the former school hall now repurposed into classrooms, Kunene fondly recalls the excitement and subsequent events, including Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as the country’s first Black president and the enactment of a new Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for all, dismantling the apartheid regime’s discriminatory structures.
The memories of apartheid’s oppression persist among those who lived through it. Lily Makhanya, 87, vividly recounts the cruelty inflicted by white supremacists, recalling the terror of nighttime encounters with white bikers who violently assaulted Black pedestrians. Makhanya’s late husband, a dedicated anti-apartheid activist, tragically lost his life in the struggle against oppression.
For Makhanya and countless others who endured the hardships and sacrificed for justice, April 27, 1994, represents a pivotal moment—a transition from a dark past to a hopeful future of prosperity and equality.
