OPINION: Chin up, South Africa, for a 25-year-old you're not doing too badly | MsRaborife
When South Africa held its first democratic elections, I was about to turn 6 years old. A few years later, when my world changed, I got a better idea of what this"new, democratic South Africa" meant to me, writesMy earliest memory of elections, politics or the ANC is of a round sticker in the living room of our house in Rockville, Soweto, many years ago.
As the only little child in the family at the time, I spent a lot of time around adults and so ended up absorbing the conversations they would have. This is where I think my small fascination for Ramaphosa came from. Someone, somewhere in our household – which saw many visitors from all walks of life – must have praised him in heaps and that stayed with me.
This introduction to other races was a shock to my 11-year-old system. The only other time I had ever seen people of other races was in shared public spaces like malls when we went shopping, or on TV. Other than that, all I knew was Soweto, and Soweto being the largest township in the country still is made up of, mostly, black people.
I used a well-known bus service to get to and from work from Dobsonville to Sandton, which would take around two hours. The stipend was enough to get me to and from work daily, using a monthly bus tag – the cheapest and therefore longest transport option there was. Millions still rely on this form of transport daily, despite the bus company's unimpressive track record when it comes to safety, efficiency and accountability for injuries caused in transit.
The latest official unemployment rate in South Africa is 27.1%. And among people under 35, the rate is about 53% – among the highest in the world, AFP reports.In the days leading up to the general elections, political parties have dangled the promise of jobs during their respective campaigns to win the youth's vote.
Our judicial and Chapter Nine institutions still function independently, working to keep our democratic pillars strong and separate.
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