Puleng Matsaneng's blog

In the next few days we will be celebrating our fourth local democratic elections.  South Africa is a new country on a journey.  As that journey unfolds, many citizens are beginning to feel anxious at the speed with which change is happening.  The slowness of development has left some discouraged.  

In different parts of the country people are talking about how their local governments have failed them.  In some places these frustrated demands have expressed themselves in demonstrations and even riots.  Promises have not been kept.  Some of our leaders see positions of power not as an opportunity to serve their electors but instead as a time to enrich themselves.  As we listen to these politicians speaking, we might ask ourselves: ‘Are they listening to us?’  

The Sharpville Massacre took place 51 years ago. The march which ended in the massacre was focussed on pass laws and the segregation of African people. In 1976 we also had the Soweto uprising and this was later followed by the 1986 riots.   

I have no direct experience of the Sharpville march and Massacre because it took place a few years before I was born, but my parents related the story to me and it moved me deeply. I had to use my own imagination about the event to see the angry people, their tears, blood all over the place, pain and suffering. The massacre killed 69 people, many others were wounded, some went missing, some were displaced, and others decided to leave Sharpville, which was their home. Peoples’ land was taken. Many people were left with nothing and no hope.

As the Southern Sudanese prepare themselves for nationhood, I recall 1994 when, for the first time, I voted for the beginning of our own new nation.

My experience of joy seemed to be shared by the whole country as millions of us took charge of our lives and voted.  And even for those who had been able to vote before, 1994 was different: they could now vote knowing it was a fully shared democratic right.  Almost 90% of us as South Africans placed our mark on the ballot as a commitment to change.

The Christian community is now about to celebrate another important time in the Christian calendar which is Christmas. In its simplicity and nature it is a time of joy and harmony. The songs are joyous and the mood is also good. It brings a certain discipline to all those who are Christians and non-Christian in the way come that they together somehow not necessarily by observing the day, but just by knowing of it together with the Christian community.