23 April 2015
maritzburg
What Freedom Day means to them
ECHO
NEWS
5
FREEDOM Day is an annual celebration of South Africa’s first nonracial democratic elections in 1994 and is celebrated on April 27. Nompendulo Ngubane spoke to youngsters to find out what the day means to them. PHOTOS: NOMPENDULO NGUBANE
Zakhele Ngubane ‘It always remind me of the long queues at voting stations when South Africans went there to cast their first democratic right to vote. I was still a child, but I have a vivid memory of what was going on. To me this day will always be the day when we were free from the chains of apartheid.’
Thobeka Sibiya ‘It was the day when were said goodbye to inequality and said hello to great education opportunities and other positive activities that black people were not exposed to. It bettered our education and that is the most exciting thing about this day. Thank you to people like Dr Nelson Mandela.’
Smangele Vilakazi ‘It opened closed doors on our side as the youth. We are now exposed to model C schools and we have a choice in education, career oppor tunities and, as the youth, we are given rights.’
Nkosinathi Khumalo ‘To me it means that I am a free South African citizen with so many choices in life. We are the beneficiaries of democracy. Those benefits being freedom of speech, freedom of being proud of my skin colour, freedom of being a born free. Thank you to the people who made it possible, South Africa has a good history.’