Today is Freedom Day, so let’s celebrate our freedom
It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on this day in 1994
Freedom Day is a public holiday celebrated nationally today (April 27).
It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on this day in 1994.
The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age (over 18) from any race group, including foreign citizens permanently resident in South Africa, were allowed to vote.
Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites had only limited rights to vote.
On the first commemoration of the holiday, President Nelson Mandela addressed Parliament:
“As dawn ushered in this day, the 27th of April 1994, few of us could suppress the welling of emotion, as we were reminded of the terrible past from which we come as a nation; the great possibilities that we now have; and the bright future that beckons us.
“And so we assemble here today, and in other parts of the country, to mark an historic day in the life of our nation.
“Wherever South Africans are across the globe, our hearts beat as one as we renew our common loyalty to our country and our commitment to its future.”
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