Calls for more jobs for South Africa’s black majority and respect for the rights of the LGBTI community marked Freedom Day celebrations on Saturday commemorating the 25th anniversary of the end of apartheid.
KWA-THEMA, South Africa — Calls for more jobs for South Africa’s black majority and respect for the rights of the LGBTI community marked Freedom Day celebrations on Saturday commemorating the 25th anniversary of the end of apartheid.
Singing and dancing punctuated one gathering of about 3,500 people on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
A quarter-century ago South Africa’s blacks finally were able to vote, bringing democracy to the country. But long after the brutal apartheid system of racial discrimination, speakers said many still struggle to find a decent life.
“What is the meaning of freedom if many people in a township are unemployed?” asked David Makhura, premier of Gauteng province, which includes South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.
“What is the meaning of freedom if you don’t have a job? Or if you don’t have a house or land?” Makhura said the government of the African National Congress party is working to get title deeds for black South Africans: “The land must belong to our people!”
All South Africans must respect the rights of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex citizens, the premier added, saying many in the LGBTI community still suffer violence and discrimination in their workplaces, in church and elsewhere.
