Violence in South Africa Occurs Amid Signs of Resilience: Analysts
News Analysis
JOHANNESBURG He didn’t have to say anything, the looter wearing black jeans, sneakers slippery with soda, and a sweat-and-dirt-stained white t-shirt. It was already shining in his eyes. But as he left the burning mall, he laughed.
“For the first time in my life, I feel free,” he told The Epoch Times
.
He was 20, he said. So, he’d never known apartheid. He was one of the so-called Born Frees, the generation birthed after Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) swept to power with an overwhelming majority in South Africa’s first multiracial polls in 1994.
Death in apartheid detention: Verdict eagerly awaited a dailymaverick.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymaverick.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Going beyond protest. (File Photo)
A new generation of South Africans are questioning what freedom means for women and the LGBTQIA+ community. The Break the Silence Movement says it intends on taking conversations about gender-based violence beyond hashtags.
As South Africa wrapped April, the month in which the country commemorates Freedom Day, a group of women are questioning those celebrations when women are not truly free. Known as the so-called Born Free generation, they are challenging what freedom means in South Africa today.
Zaylia Vivienne and Boitumelo Thage gathered with women in Pretoria to share their experiences of gender-based violence and how it still curtails their freedom. They discussed issues of femicide, rape, abuse, and the targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.