The advocacy and activism that energized people around the world need to be reactivated to achieve Nelson Mandela’s vision.
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As South Africa approaches 30 years since the end of apartheid and the advent of multi-party democracy, it is important to pause to reflect on human rights and equality in the country today.
Unfortunately, its human rights record, particularly for black South Africans, remains deeply problematic. It is marred by racist outcomes in many fundamental areas of social and economic rights that are recognized and protected by the South African constitution, including rights to health care, housing and education.
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Although the country is a multi-party democracy, the African National Congress has maintained a near monopoly on power in parliament and in the majority of South Africa’s provinces for 30 years. One of the consequences of this virtual monopoly on power is profound and pervasive corruption.
Montreal, like many Canadian and U.S. cities, historically was a site of major anti-apartheid activism and protests at universities and in civil society.
As Nelson Mandela said on a visit to Montreal in June 1990 about his confidence in the eventual fall of the apartheid regime: “When that day dawns, as soon it must, it will be a matter of great joy to us to see the name Montreal appear on the roll of honour of those who stood with us to the end.”
Indeed, Canada under prime minister Brian Mulroney’s leadership was a vigorous opponent of apartheid.
Despite this, Mandela’s confidence that Canadians would continue to stand by South Africans as they pursued democracy, multiracial equality and freedom and a new government and society based on principles of human rights was not fulfilled.
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Mandela said, “We are certain that you will, together with the rest of the Canadian people, stay the course with us, not only as we battle on to end the apartheid system but also as we work to build a happy, peaceful, prosperous future for all the people of South and Southern Africa.”
But rather than staying the course and remaining active and building on this allyship and solidarity to ensure continuity of support for South Africa’s transition to democracy, anti-apartheid activism in Montreal, Canada, the United States and around the world petered out in the years immediately after 1994 and today.
Mandela’s confidence was sadly misplaced.
The assumption was made by human rights activists and by civil society that multiracial democracy ensured a transformed South Africa that, with time, would be characterized by the commitments of its constitution.
Unfortunately, that is not how things worked out.
The idealism and activism of the anti-apartheid movement ran out of steam just when it was most needed to ensure a successful transition to democracy and a deep and durable commitment to human rights by the ruling ANC.
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Instead, as South Africans go to the polls in early May, they will reflect on a country whose democratic promise in 1994 has been continuously violated and on a ruling party beset by allegations of corruption, ineptitude and mismanagement.
The result is all South Africans suffer, but black South Africans in particular bear the brunt of the ANC’s failures of governance. They overwhelmingly remain low-income and are systemically economically marginalized and suffer from poverty on a large scale.
For those who cared about South Africans before the fall of apartheid and for those who care about them today who still insist that human rights, equity, equality and the freedom and access to justice they necessitate are fundamental, Mandela’s vision and that of the South African constitution are a call to action.
The advocacy and activism that so energized Montrealers, Canadians, Americans and people around the world need to be reactivated today and in the years ahead to reaffirm and realize the vision of a South Africa that honours the promise of all its people, respects their human dignity and fulfils their human rights.
Noam Schimmel is an associate fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University’s faculty of law and a lecturer in international and area studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
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