Free at last, South Africa could rise as a model nation — or slip into the abyss

"We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white ... ," reads the Freedom Charter adopted on June 26, 1955, by the Congress of the People, in Kliptown located near Johannesburg, South Africa. The site where it was written is memorialized by Freedom Square.

On my recent trip to South Africa, I wanted to visit the historical sites. I asked my cousin, who was born and raised in South Africa, to drive me there. He did not know where it was. So in Sweto, near Kliptown, we asked a gas station attendant, a passerby and a policeman for directions.

None of these people knew the location of the nearby historic sites of Freedom Square, the Peterson Memorial or the Apartheid Museum. I was amazed at the ignorance and indifference of the people with respect to their history and struggles of the recent past.

In the last three decades of the last century, we all have watched on TV and in the press the struggles, trials and tribulations of non-white South Africans against the five-tier apartheid system. The five tiers were white, honorary Whites (Japanese), Colored (racially mixed), Asians and Blacks.

We have sympathized with the people who have been wronged. We have known conditions of people in Sweto (South West Township), a town specifically created to settle native black South Africans.

Freedom is the result of long and hard struggles, but keeping the freedom alive is even harder and more tedious. It was disturbing for me to see the people who are the inheritors of freedom after a long struggle taking it for granted and easily forgetting their past.

There was time when a white European could immigrate to South Africa and instantly receive a preferred treatment under the law. The new European immigrant would receive a better job offer and higher pay than a non-white who was born and raised in South Africa.

The new laws, enacted after the fall of the apartheid system in the mid-'90s, have created a more just and equitable society. Discrimination based on race, religion and ethnicity is legally a thing of the past.

Now whites are moving into Asian neighborhoods and blacks buy homes in the old white enclaves, but the remnants of the old segregated towns are still there. Some areas are lily white, where there are big beautiful homes with manicured lawns and huge malls and shopping areas; some areas are virtually shanty towns, where dwellings are made up of corrugated steel sheets with no electricity and no running water.

The struggle against discrimination and apartheid has turned into struggle against poverty and lawlessness.

The whites, who did not like the freedom of non-whites and a democratically elected government, were unhappy after the apartheid system was dismantled and were leaving the country in the past decade or so. The mass exodus has stopped. It appears that it has stabilized now. Foreign investments are coming in.

The country is moving forward economically, politically and socially, and it has become magnet for job seekers of other economically backward countries of Africa. The Soccer World Cup to be held in South Africa in 2010 is causing a big stir and impetus for development and economic progress.

South Africa is a beautiful country. It is endowed with tremendous natural resources. Under the earth there is abundance of minerals, coal, gold and diamonds, and above the surface it has good soil and marvelous weather which produces abundant fruits and grains. It grows the sweetest mangos and leechies, tasty bananas, corn and sugarcane. And, of course, their wildlife parks are unmatched in the world.

It is the law of nature that for every action there is a reaction. Apartheid in itself is an evil system, but it has produced some very pronounced effects. These effects are visible.

The people who were segregated preserved their culture, religion and traditions in their own townships. The Asians, for example, were uprooted from their jobs and business and moved to separate localities. These localities have allowed various religions to live and flourish side-by-side.

The segregated sports have melded together to form very strong teams. I watched a Pakistani cricket team, rated number three in the world, beaten by a South African consisting of players black, white and brown.

South Africa is an amazing country. It has a bright future and the right ingredients that may make it the most productive and progressive country in Africa.

Or it can go into an abyss, like Zimbabwe, if people forget or ignore their historical struggles and do not safeguard their newfound freedom.

Lodi resident Taj Khan is a consulting engineer.

First published: Saturday, February 24, 2007