On April 27, South Africa marks the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid, when we South Africans finally won the fight for everyone to be recognized as equal citizens. Just a month later, on May 29th, we will hold a national election.
Every election in South Africa is a chance for us to remember that our country belongs to everyone who lives in it. But this year’s vote has special significance.
It will be an opportunity to reflect on what we have learned as a nation through our many successes and failures over the past three decades.
Ironically, perhaps the most important lesson to reflect on is that elections, while important, are only one part of a functioning democracy. Indeed, we have learned over the last 30 years that in a democratic society, real results depend on people holding their leaders accountable through protest and community organizing, not just voting.
People power works
South Africa’s first multiracial elections began on April 26, 1994. The vote ended white minority rule, brought Nelson Mandela to the presidency, and brought massive positive changes in human rights, housing, education, healthcare, freedom of movement, and more.
Subsequently, April 27 became Freedom Day and a public holiday to celebrate the end of apartheid.
Nevertheless, the multiracial elections did not eliminate the effects of apartheid. The scars of oppression remain, particularly in the form of the massive economic inequality that successive governments have failed to address over the past 30 years. Corruption is also widespread and the provision of basic services is inadequate.
The legacy of apartheid is also embedded in the country’s landscape, which has been demarcated by segregation and dispossession. A simple visit to the beach, for example, brings back memories of people of color hiding in the bushes to avoid the apartheid police enforcing a whites-only beach. A walk along a particular street reminds us of the homes of black, colored and Indian families that were demolished by the apartheid regime to make way for white neighborhoods. To this day, housing inequality remains largely along racial lines.
These realities have meant that the democratic struggle has continued over the last 30 years and South Africans have won many of the most significant changes not through elections but through protest.
The Treatment Action Campaign of the late 1990s and early 2000s mobilized people to rally and force the government to acknowledge the reality of HIV spread and provide antiretroviral drugs as the AIDS epidemic ravaged our country.
In 2005, a group of shack dwellers in informal settlements founded Abahlali baseMjondolo, a grassroots socialist collective, to demand housing rights for landless people who were forcibly displaced and denied ownership of property under apartheid rule. The group’s flagship protest strategy of barricading settlements to prevent local authorities from evicting shanty dwellers has been so successful that the collective now has over 100,000 active members and is forcing government officials to respect housing rights.
And in 2015, #FeesMustFall student protesters braved extraordinary police violence on campus to successfully block proposed university tuition increases, pressure the government to increase student funding, and push student issues onto the national political agenda.
These are just a few examples of protests that have made front pages and news broadcasts. But there are almost daily demonstrations on issues as diverse as labor disputes, gender-based violence and service delivery, which do not receive as much media coverage but are just as important.
In fact, South Africa has one of the highest protest rates in the world; Demonstrations have taken place regularly since the 1970s.
Our culture of protest is a legacy of the apartheid years. Apartheid did not end because the white supremacists in power developed a conscience. The people have systematically and collectively undermined it through sustained protest. This tradition continues to this day.
But the main reason we protest so much is simple: people power works. Or as community activist Bhayiza Miya said: “Real protest is the only language the government understands.”
No illusions
Another lesson from the last 30 years in South Africa is to never take rights and freedoms for granted. In practice, this means being deeply cynical about those in power.
In South Africa we cannot assume that our politicians, judiciary and law enforcement agencies have our best interests at heart. After all, apartheid was the law upheld and enforced by the state. Many of us are therefore skeptical about the current situation.
This is one reason why South Africa’s citizen initiatives aimed at fiscal oversight, transparency, social justice, corruption and equality are among the most robust in the world. In fact, our oversight mechanisms – including litigation, civil society demands for transparency, investigative journalism and public demonstrations – are so strong that they helped expose rampant corruption and state capture that led to the ouster of Jacob Zuma from the presidency in 2018.
The broad movement to hold Zuma accountable underscores a third lesson we have learned since 1994: for democracy to succeed, everyone must participate.
Under apartheid there was no “civil society sector”. Everyone from students to unions to musicians to flight attendants joined the fight.
Today’s movements are most effective when people from across society participate, regardless of race, class, gender, citizenship and age. Likewise, grassroots mutual aid efforts that provide everything from food to elder care show how South Africans instinctively band together to provide a safety net when the state and private sector fail.
However, we are under no illusions about the terrible conditions in which many people in South Africa live today.
Despite our attempts to hold leaders accountable, terrible things have happened here in democracy. There is still no justice for the Marikana massacre in 2012, when police shot dead dozens of platinum workers and demanded a modest wage increase. There is still no justice for the deaths of more than 140 patients in 2016 after they were transferred to substandard psychiatric facilities in Gauteng province, where they faced neglect and starvation.
Furthermore, our democracy has produced effective one-party rule at the national level, with the African National Congress (ANC) winning six consecutive elections since 1994.
While there are some good reasons for the ANC’s repeated victories, including fears of a return to apartheid and concerns about other parties’ ability to deal with state bureaucracy, there is no denying that South Africa’s young democracy is suffering without multiple viable national parties .
But that could change too.
In May, the ANC will face serious national challengers for the first time, with the Democratic Alliance, the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters and Zuma’s new MK Party emerging as candidates who could force our first coalition government since democracy began.
It’s a sign that South Africa’s electoral democracy is maturing, and it’s fair to say that protests and civic organizations have helped us reach this milestone.
So in this 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid and the beginning of democracy, South Africans of all backgrounds will have plenty to reflect on the past, present and future as the May vote approaches.
But as in April 1994, voting will be just one step.
Then we return to the streets, courtrooms and communities, where the hard, daily work of nurturing our democracy continues.
The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.