Nelson Mandela casts his vote in South Africa's first democratic election. Image: Louise Gubb
“We have moved from an era of pessimism, division, limited opportunities, turmoil and conflict,” said Nelson Mandela soon after voting for the first time in his life.
It was 21 years ago, on 27 April 1994 that South Africa held its first democratic election and Mandela chose to cast his vote at the Ohlange Institute in KwaZulu-Natal. It was established by John Langalibalele Dube, the founding father of the African National Congress.
The ANC received the highest number of votes in that election and Mandela was elected the country’s first black president. He chose to serve only one term as President, and throughout those five years emphasised that responsibility and freedom went hand-in-hand.
In the last year of his presidency he told South Africa’s Parliament: “Freedom can never be taken for granted. Each generation must safeguard it and extend it. Your parents and elders sacrificed much so that you should have freedom without suffering.” He urged: “Use this precious right to ensure that the darkness of the past never returns.”
He would often stress that South Africa had a long and difficult road to travel before it could undo the damage wreaked on the country by centuries of oppression.
Mandela was painfully aware of the suffering borne by neighbouring African states due to the support they gave ANC fighters during the freedom struggle. The Frontline States frequently became the targets of the apartheid military machinery as it tried to destroy all opposition.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is marking the 21st anniversary of South Africa’s freedom by hosting an exhibition to honour the role of the Frontline States.
On the Frontline, curated by Ingrid Sinclair and Simon Bright, is a photographic exhibition depicting the cost carried in the fight against apartheid by the Frontline States – Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Lesotho and Malawi.
It echoes Mandela’s support of the Frontline States by displaying the words in his first speech after his release from prison. “The sacrifice of the Frontline States will be remembered by South Africans forever,” he said from the balcony of the Cape Town City Hall on Sunday 11 February 1990.
A year into his presidency he used the Frontline States’ role to illustrate why South Africans should never blame their plight on foreigners. In a speech to counter growing xenophobia, he reminded South Africans that it was foreign countries that took in anti-apartheid activists and gave them bases from which to continue the struggle.
It was in honouring this and other memories, he believed, that South Africa would avoid slipping back into the violation of human rights and committing atrocities that it had experienced for generations before democracy.
In his speech to Parliament to mark ten years of democracy, the then retired president said: “The memory of a history of division and hate, injustice and suffering, inhumanity of person against person should inspire us to celebrate our own demonstration of the capacity of human beings to progress, to go forward, to improve, to do better.”
