Anger At Poor Public Services 25 Years Into South Africa Democracy

Soweto, South Africa, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Apr, 2019 ) :Inside the conical brick tower looming over Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, Busi Hlatshwayo thoughtfully studies 10 giant bronze slabs announcing the core principles of South Africa's Freedom Charter.

She pauses at one that declares: "The people shall share in the country's wealth!" and remarks wryly: "Where is that wealth?" Hlatshwayo then slowly recites another: "There shall be houses, security and comfort!" "Where (is the) comfort?" the 79-year-old asks. "Instead, we are still crying." Hlatshwayo hails from Kliptown, a suburb of Johannesburg's Soweto township. Many people here live in crowded, makeshift homes built with corrugated iron sheets and other rudimentary materials.

Several families share a single, outside toilet.

"All these things written (here), none of them have been done," Hlatshwayo said, pointing at the triangular bronze slabs arranged to form an imposing, gleaming circle at the monument's heart.

As May 8 general elections approach, South Africans who accuse the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of reneging on Nelson Mandela's 1994 promise of "a better life for all", have staged often violent demonstrations in townships that still lack basic services 25 years after the country's first democratic vote, which ended white minority rule.

It was in Kliptown in 1955 that about 3,000 anti-apartheid activists adopted the Freedom Charter, a pinnacle document which became the cornerstone of the ANC's stated policies and the foundation of South Africa's much-admired constitution.

The monument erected on a civic square of the 116-year-old township attracts thousands of tourists each year.

But for local residents, the grandeur of the tower and its 10 surrounding pillars belies their suffering.