SOUTH AFRICA has celebrated the 30th anniversary of the end of the racist apartheid regime and the founding of its new democracy. 

Yesterday’s occasion was marked with a ceremony in the capital Pretoria that included a 21-gun salute and the waving of the nation’s multicoloured flag.

The African National Congress (ANC) has been in power ever since April 27 1994, the first democratic election that officially ended apartheid when black people were allowed to vote for the first time.

Marked annually since as Freedom Day, this year’s holiday came as many analysts predict that the party once led by Nelson Mandela may well lose its parliamentary majority for the first time when the nation goes to the polls on May 29.

An Ipsos poll released on Friday showed support for the ANC, which won more than 57 per cent of the vote at the last national elections in 2019, has dropped to around 40 per cent.

Were it to win less than 50 per cent, the ANC would be forced to find coalition partners to stay in power.

Referring to the day when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president, current premier Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday that “few days in the life of our nation can compare to that day, when freedom was born.”

He said: “South Africa changed forever. It signalled a new chapter in the history of our nation — a moment that resonated across Africa and across the world.

“On that day, the dignity of all the people of South Africa was restored." 

But the ANC’s image has been badly hurt by accusations of corruption and its inability to effectively tackle poverty, crime, inequality and unemployment, which remain staggeringly high.

South Africa’s black majority — over 80 per cent of the population of 62 million — still experience severe poverty.

The official unemployment rate in South Africa is 32 per cent, the highest in the world. 

Thandeka Mvakali from the Alexandra Township in Johannesburg said life is no different from the time of her parents during apartheid.

“We are living in a one bedroom [house], maybe we are 10 inside, and then maybe two are employed,” she said. 

President Ramaphosa, standing in front of an emblazoned “freedom” banner, acknowledged the major problems South Africa still has after three decades, saying: “We have made much progress and we are determined to do much more.”