13 April, 2012

Apartheid, the shadow of democracy


Democracy is the greatest thing that the past marginalized citizens of South Africa achieved. Until this day people struggle to define the meaning of democracy, but they have a clear distinction of what apartheid is. In short democracy means having equal access and the ability to exercise all rights freely. That is why a democratic government is termed government of the people by the people

The only democracy people know of is walking the streets freely but they do not speak back to authority even if their right is being infringed upon. For instance a video about police brutality in Vaal Water people just stood there and watched a person being beaten up by a police which shows truly people are still chained in apartheid where police would do as they wish.

It makes one wonder what kind of a future the following generation will have when it comes to freedom, for instance if people cannot speak back to authority now, will the next generation be able to? People are aware of their rights but when given a platform to exercise them people choose to walk away, for example on that video people had a chance to stop the incident but they chose to watch and say nothing. South Africans are afraid of exercising the freedom they fought for, they rather be silent.    

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