On the 8thof May 2019, I will head to a primary school in my area and stand in what I anticipate to be a long queue for my chance to come face to face with a ballot paper. As this day inches closer and closer, I cannot help, but reflect on the past 25 years of democracy in South Africa. I criticise the progress we have made as a country because despite the inclusion of socio-economic rights in the Constitution, the living conditions of many black citizens remain largely unchanged. I am tempted to silence the instinctively critical voice within me, with the reminder that change takes time. It goes without saying that change does not happen overnight, but 25 years is not overnight. It is a quarter of a century, 5 national elections, 5 presidents, and countless ministers and other leaders who have been entrusted with safeguarding democracy and transforming our enormously unequal nation.
I cannot deny that some change has occurred. Effort has been made to manage poverty through social grants and access to water, electricity, education, healthcare and other social services to those who were previously deprived of such basic necessities. Many black citizens can argue that the past 25 years have been focused on the provision of basic necessities, on managing poverty instead of completely demolishing the economic structures that allow poverty to continue to exist 25 years post democracy. At the heart of transforming and dismantling these unequal economic structures is restitution and redistribution. True social emancipation in which poverty is not merely managed, but completely eradicated includes deconstructing the systematic concentration of economic power in the hands of a few. Yet we have seen very little restitution and redistribution in the past 25 years. Instead we are confronted with an increasing education and health crisis, growing income inequality, an outdated and expensive electricity system that fails to keep up with the needs of the modern world, state owned enterprises that sustain themselves with taxpayers money and corrupt leaders. Corruption and power politics take centre stage. Apartheid continues to thrive in various places, hiding in the corridors of corporate South Africa, in various state practices and in the greedy political leaders who are focused on ensuring their own survival.
Although there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, I am hopeful that my vote, can contribute to building the next 25 years. I hope that the next 25 years commits to structural interventions aimed at restitution and equitable distribution of the resources to all the people of South African. I am hopeful that the next 25 years will prioritise necessary reforms such as land reform. I hope for access to quality education for black people, better healthcare services, decreased dependency on social grants and more sustainable jobs. I hope for a thriving environment for black entrepreneurs in leading industries. I hope for leaders with substance, who will put the people of South Africa first. I hope for a country striving towards the inclusion of black women in all levels of the economy. I hope for the true realisation of the constitutional aspiration of healing the divisions of the past and establishing a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
As a young person, I am optimistic about the next 25 years because I have seen the change that young people can achieve when we challenge inequality and disrupt the status-quo. I have seen our eagerness to rewrite the narrative and move towards a truly participatory, people-centred democracy that rejects the structures of colonialism and apartheid.
