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‘You can’t eat votes’ – the best Freedom Day quotes from SA’s leaders

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Political leaders were visible across the country today to celebrate Freedom Day. While many of the leaders agreed on the importance of this day they had conflicting views on the state of the country as it enters its 23rd year of democracy.

Here are today’s top 10 quotes from political figures:

10. At a time when our very ideas and practice of freedom seem to be under threat from a series of sinister acts and behaviours by those who would profess to care for this freedom, it is perhaps a most opportune time to reflect on the exact nature of freedom in the South African context.
the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

9. Mr President, listen to us: follow the plan that Madiba and his people put together in 1994.
Zelda la Grange, assistant of late former president Nelson Mandela.


8. It can be argued that some have never seen the Freedom we pride ourselves on ... When 2.2 million South Africans are missing a meal a day and 1 in 15 children die before their fifth birthday due to malnutrition, we must ask where those conversations disappear to when we stand in fury at an injustice.
the Nelson Mandela Foundation.


7. 23 years into a democratic South Africa it can no longer be good enough that we don’t feel personally responsible for being part of the South African solution. Everyone has it in them to extend a hand and restore dignity in a neighbour’s life. And everyone has it in them to contribute to the combatting of systemic exclusion.
the Nelson Mandela Foundation.


6. We’ve been here before. On this day in 1994 South Africans came together to vote for a new future. It was an incredible day. We showed the world that the spirit of the South African people cannot be crushed.
Democratic Alliance leader, Mmusi Maimane, who spoke at the freedom movement rally at the Caledonian Stadium in Tshwane.


5. All of us have seen what happens when you give one man too much power. We have seen what happens when one party is in power for too long. Together, we are building a new movement to realign politics as we know it.
Mmusi Maimane


4. We have achieved political freedom but economic freedom still remains largely elusive. It is for this reason that we speak about radical economic transformation.
President Jacob Zuma at uMhlabuyalingana, KwaZulu-Natal.


3. Before [in 1994] we sang together, we bled together and we marched together and we are still marching together to call our government into order.
Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter, Ndileka Mandela.


2. Freedom comes with responsibility. We must continue to work together, each making their own contribution to build a South Africa that is free of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
President Jacob Zuma.


1. While the rest of the country celebrates Freedom Day, some of the indigenous people of this country still live in poverty. They might be democratically free, but they cannot eat votes
ANC Youth League provincial secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo.


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