It’s FREEDOM DAY in South AFRICA on 27th April.
In the 1990s, a commonly held view was that South Africa had achieved a “miracle” because of its relatively peaceful political transition from apartheid to inclusive democracy in 1994.
The “miracle” consisted of South Africans talking their way out of decades of increasingly brutal apartheid rule. They struck a deal whereby the white minority relinquished power to a racially inclusive government in a constitutional democracy.
As psychology professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela put it, in acceding to democracy, South Africans forged a vocabulary of compromise and tolerance {to settle} differences through the politics of contestation and compromise among equals.
South Africans negotiated a democracy that replaced the parliamentary supremacy of the apartheid era with constitutional supremacy. The new constitution contains a bill of rights with the unusual inclusion of socio-economic rights alongside liberal rights. This foregrounded human dignity relative to freedom and equality, and non-racialism as a principle.
Continue to read this very interesting article in Steuart Pennington’s Website : South Africa Good News https://www.sagoodnews.co.za/2021-freedom-day/