Clicky
  • home Home
  • keyboard_arrow_right NEWS
  • keyboard_arrow_right Posts
  • keyboard_arrow_rightWith just days to the 2019 ballot, Khaya Sithole urges us to remember

With just days to the 2019 ballot, Khaya Sithole urges us to remember

Twenty-five years later – the memories of what we used to be and who we wish to be shall converge in the ballot box…

By Khaya S Sithole

“Fiction writers must master the art of creating a vivid picture, but the challenge for memoirists is to determine how and what to remember.” (Diana Raab, PhD)

In just eight days’ time, South Africans will take to the polls for the sixth time since that fateful morning of 27 April 1994. That day, South Africans were buoyed by a sense of optimism that appeared surreal and eternal; a sense of hope that after decades of socioeconomic disenfranchisement underpinned by the apartheid regime, the future would be far less exclusive and much more equitable. In 1994, there was an explicit desire to banish the past into the annals of memory. A desire to create a new future premised on shared prosperity and social solidarity. A future whose fundamental ethos of reconciliation called on so many who had sacrificed so much to commit one last sacrifice and commit to the spirit of forgiveness.

With just days to the 2019 ballot, Khaya Sithole urges us to remember

Much less explicit and far less tangible was the question of what the ensuing years would look like and more accurately – should look like. In 1994, burdened with the responsibility of unburdening the nation from a state of social, political and economic paralysis and charting a map forward; the government had a lot of social and political goodwill in hand. The type of goodwill that enabled all of us to say – ‘We may not know exactly where we will end up, but it definitely will be better than where we come from’. This shaped the initial pathway of the democratic state – the abolition of discriminatory laws and practices; the creation of democracy-supporting institutions with a commitment to the common cause; and the adoption of the country’s ultimate social charter – the Constitution.

25 years later, the country finds itself at a crossroads. On the one hand, we have the generation that lived through the hard times. The generation that fought in the trenches for the right to vote on 25 April 1994. A generation whose sense of duty and responsibility was fashioned not through choice but by circumstance and chance. A generation whose recollection of the past was as vivid in 1994 as it ought to be today. The recollection ought to be as vivid today simply because the type of prejudices and problems of the past remain deeply embedded in the soul long after their structures are dismantled. And yet – as fate would have it – the persistence of memory is not as pure as we might desire. In the interregnum – so much of the 1994 promise has found itself contesting ideals with reality.

Also Read: Are calls for an economic CODESA justified?

The reality of a stagnant state and a polarised society that stands in contrast with the optimism of the 1994 spring of hope. A state of paralysed institutions and compromised custodians who continuously undermine the social solidarity that we all signed for. Such a state of affairs, has led to a sense of tangible discontent within this generation. The type of discontent that leads them to question the substance of sensibility of the concessions of 1994.

On the other hand, we have a much younger generation of voters and citizens born soon before and after 1994. The type of generation whose memory of apartheid is partly anecdotal and part-reality. The reality emanates not from living through the height of it all but rather struggling and suffocating through its enduring legacy. A generation whose presence in this world presents an intersectionality of luck, opportunity and disappointment. Some were lucky to find ways of accessing the elusive upside of democracy – access to education, shelter, health and vibrant economic prospects. Some were lucky to be born into the world of opportunity that at once offered access and facilitated success in multiple fields.

Others – tragically making up a significant part of this generation – had a much harder recollection of the past 25 years. A time that has seen them seeking to survive rather than thrive. A time that has seen them existing on the fringes and forever chasing the elusive mirage of the grand democratic illusion. It is perhaps in this group where the fragility of memory is most amplified. They have surely heard the stories of how bad it used to be; how fractured the social compact used to be; and how brutal the system of legitimised discrimination used to be. They may indeed recall the stories passed on from the previous generations and know that what we have now is much better than what we used to have. And yet – in their daily confrontations with the reality of unemployment, poverty, exclusion and marginalisation – the fluidity of memory takes centre stage where it is not always easy to know what to remember and what to forget. Do we remember the brutality of apartheid with the same vigour that we forget the gap between expectations and outcomes since 1994? Do we remember the conquest of the past with the same sense of euphoria that we forget the scourge of the ‘nine wasted years’? And if we are to find parts of our history worth remembering and those worth forgetting – how do such interactions with past and recent history inform our decisions going forward?

READ: David O’Sullivan Shares Memories Of the 1994 Election

The 2019 election cycle unites the two generations in one particular aspect – the acknowledgment of the lost momentum, the broken social compact and the declining fortunes of the nation. Both generations have lingering questions about the past and persistent anxieties about the future. The political campaign season would be best served by tapping into these questions and anxieties and offering prospects of something substantially more cogent and unifying than what we have seen before. As memories fade either through fragility or diminishing persistence – the essential social compass gravitates further towards what are to become rather than what has come before and denied us the chance to be. Over the last leg of this campaign season, we can only hope that those seeking to lead us into the next 25 years will find a way of leveraging the collective memory of a society lacking in collectivism, to find a way to bring us all together again – whether we are the old or the emerging generation.

Failure to do this means that one day our fabled history of the 1994 promise will fade into the annals of fiction.

Written by: Zuko



UpComing Shows

DownLoad Our Mobile App

Privacy Policy

THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT FORMS PART OF KAYA 959’S TERMS OF USE POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY TERM OF THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT, YOU MUST CEASE YOUR ACCESS OF THIS WEBSITE IMMEDIATELY. 

POPIA ActTo promote the protection of personal information processed by public and private bodies; to introduce certain conditions so as to establish minimum requirements for the processing of personal information; to provide for the establishment of an Information Regulator to exercise certain powers and to perform certain duties and functions in terms of this Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000; to provide for the issuing of codes of conduct; to provide for the rights of persons regarding unsolicited electronic communications and automated decision making; to regulate the flow of personal information across the borders of the Republic; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

RECOGNISING THAT—

  • section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that everyone has the right to privacy;
  • the right to privacy includes a right to protection against the unlawful collection, retention, dissemination and use of personal information;
  • the State must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights;

AND BEARING IN MIND THAT—

  • consonant with the constitutional values of democracy and openness, the need for economic and social progress, within the framework of the information society, requires the removal of unnecessary impediments to the free flow of information, including personal information;

AND IN ORDER TO—

  • regulate, in harmony with international standards, the processing of personal information by public and private bodies in a manner that gives effect to the right to privacy subject to justifiable limitations that are aimed at protecting other rights and important interests,
  1. Definitions and Interpretation

1.1.“Personal Information” means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person and where it is applicable, identifiable, existing juristic person, including all information as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. 

1.2  Parliament assented to POPIA on 19 November 2013. The commencement date of section 1Part A of Chapter 5section 112 and section 113 was 11 April 2014. The commencement date of the other sections was 1 July 2020 (with the exception of section 110 and 114(4). The President of South Africa has proclaimed the POPI commencement date to be 1 July 2020.

 
1.3. “Processing” means the creation, generation, communication, storage, destruction of personal information as more fully defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013.  

1.4. “You” or the “user” means any person who accesses and browses this website for any purpose. 

1.4. “Website” means the website of the KAYA 959 at URL www.kaya959.co.za or such other URL as KAYA 959 may choose from time to time.   

  1. Status and Amendments

2.1. KAYA 959 respects your privacy. This privacy policy statement sets out KAYA 959’s information gathering and dissemination practices in respect of the Website. 

2.2. This Privacy Policy governs the processing of personal information provided to KAYA 959 through your use of the Website. 

2.3. Please note that, due to legal and other developments, KAYA 959 may amend these terms and conditions from time to time.  

  1. Processing of Personal Information

3.1. By providing your personal information to KAYA 959 you acknowledge that it has been collected directly from you and consent to its processing by KAYA 959. 

3.2. Where you submit Personal Information (such as name, address, telephone number and email address) via the website (e.g. through completing any online form) the following principles are observed in the processing of that information: 

3.2.1. KAYA 959 will only collect personal information for a purpose consistent with the purpose for which it is required. The specific purpose for which information is 
collected will be apparent from the context in which it is requested. 

3.2.2. KAYA 959 will only process personal information in a manner that is adequate, relevant and not excessive in the context of the purpose for which it is processed. 

3.2.3. Personal information will only be processed for a purpose compatible with that for which it was collected, unless you have agreed to an alternative purpose in writing or KAYA 959 is permitted in terms of national legislation of general application dealing primarily with the protection of personal information. 

3.2.4. KAYA 959 will keep records of all personal Information collected and the specific purpose for which it was collected for a period of 1 (one) year from the date on which it was last used. 

3.2.5. KAYA 959 will not disclose any personal information relating to you to any third party unless your prior written agreement is obtained or KAYA 959 is required to do so by law. 

3.2.6. If personal information is released with your consent KAYA 959 will retain a record of the information released, the third party to which it was released, the reason for the release and the date of release, for a period of 1 (one) year from the date on which it was last used. 

3.2.7. KAYA 959 will destroy or delete any personal information that is no longer needed by KAYA 959 for the purpose it was initially collected, or subsequently processed. 

3.3. Note that, as permitted by the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, KAYA 959 may use personal information collected to compile profiles for statistical purposes. No information contained in the profiles or statistics will be able to be linked to any specific user.    

  1. Collection of anonymous data

4.1. KAYA 959 may use standard technology to collect information about the use of this website. This technology is not able to identify individual users but simply allows KAYA 959 to collect statistics. 

4.2. KAYA 959 may utilise temporary or session cookies to keep track of users’ browsing habits. A cookie is a small file that is placed on your hard drive in order to keep a record of your interaction with this website and facilitate user convenience. 

4.2.1. Cookies by themselves will not be used to identify users personally but may be used to compile identified statistics relating to use of services offered or to provide KAYA 959 with feedback on the performance of this website. 

4.2.2. The following classes of information may be collected in respect of users who have enabled cookies: 

4.2.2.1. The browser software used; 

4.2.2.2. IP address; 

4.2.2.3. Date and time of activities while visiting the website; 

4.2.2.4. URLs of internal pages visited; and 

4.2.2.5. referrers. 

4.3. If you do not wish cookies to be employed to customize your interaction with this website it is possible to alter the manner in which your browser handles cookies. Please note that, if this is done, certain services on this website may not be available. 

  1. Security

5.1. KAYA 959 takes reasonable measures to ensure the security and integrity of information submitted to or collected by this website, but cannot under any circumstances be held liable for any loss or other damage sustained by you as a result of unlawful access to or dissemination of any personal information by a third party. 

  1. Links to other websites

6.1. KAYA 959 has no control over and accepts no responsibility for the privacy practices of any third party websites to which hyperlinks may have been provided and KAYA 959 strongly recommends that you review the privacy policy of any website you visit before using it further. 

  1. Queries

7.1. If you have any queries about this privacy policy please contact us by emailing [email protected]