South Africa's Way To Democracy

‘In order that South Africa becomes the free and fair democracy that our constitution defines, we need as a nation, to heal the many divisions of the past.’ The constitution in South Africa is a form of law that is followed by everyone; no one not even the president has superiority over it. A democracy is a balance between the rights of the majority and protecting the minority.

In South Africa the word democracy in the past wasn’t treated the way it is now. In 1948 Apartheid came about. It was a political system during the era of the minority of the white rule. Racial discrimination against people of colour. Apartheid became institutionalised; people of different races were put into race divisions where they had to live separately by law. The oppression people of colour had to go through is something a white person in South Africa never had experienced so as a nation to heel, a common ground of understanding needs to be established. Apartheid needs to be discussed for people to learn and grow from what the history of South Africa was and why it was wrong for people to move forward from it. Apartheid is in our nation’s history and it’s something that can never be forgotten rather something that can be improved upon to better the nations pain and suffering. It is something that people of younger generations don’t understand and just go with their family’s views on it and how their family experienced it, not how it was as a whole for the whole nation because it didn’t just effect one person it effected everyone in the nation.

A man every well known in South Africa is Nelson Mandela, he fought for freedom of the nation, not just for people of colour but everyone that was part of the nation. Nelson Mandela was a representation of how a democracy should be because in the past South Africa never lived up to what a democracy is, it is a system of laws that uphold the equal rights and equality to everyone and it is a system for the people by the people.

The history of South Africa is evident that people are still living in the past and holding on to all the wrong that had happened, which is something that can never be ignored, no one in the country can just ignore that Apartheid happened because it did and it was real and raw to those who suffered, those who fought for their rights and those who died in the process of that will never be forgotten. The people of South Africa have had the closure that Apartheid is over but racism is still a huge issue that needs to be overcome. People of both white and colour races are discriminated against because of the past, the past shouldn’t be an aspect that defines what a country is. South Africa now needs peace and safety in speech, the divisions that are happening need to be broken and the only have is to educate in an unbiased and ethical manner, to come together and accepting a mutual tolerance.

In conclusion the country of South Africa needs the fair and free democracy that the people of the nation have craved for many overdue long years. People need to take responsibility to uphold human rights of equality and freedom of speech and to not be discriminated against because of colour or gender. People need to put their past differences behind them and get to connect with one another on a level of personality not race.