Inkululeko a promise deferred

South Africa's liberation struggle may have brought democracy, but it did not bring freedom

- Mmabatho Mongae

n Setswana, democracy is rendered kgololosego, which translates directly to freedom. Similarly, when academic Hlengiwe Ndlovu asked local historians what democracy means in isiXhosa, respondents used the word inkululeko, which also directly translates as freedom. These translations reflect a deeper, more freedom-oriented expectation of democracy.

Freedom is the condition to which an agent can think, choose and act without undue external coercion or internal constraint. Classic scholarship distinguishes negative liberty — freedom from obstacles — from positive liberty — freedom to pursue chosen ends, enabled by resources and capabilities. When both are realised in practice, we speak of substantive freedom: the lived capacity to turn legal rights into genuine, usable opportunities.

In a study of post-apartheid understandings of democracy, academics Heidi Brooks, Trevor Ngwane and Carin Runciman draw attention to the tensions between grass-roots understandings and visions of democracy and that which has been articulated by the ANC.

One of the respondents they interviewed was Baba Nhlapo, of the Kuruman village in the Northern Cape, who remarked: "... we are free, but to our side, we don't see democracy, we just see bad life. Because they [the ANC] say a better life but to our side it's a bad life. So, I don't think they [the ANC are] using the word democracy properly."

This statement highlights a disjuncture between the promise of democracy and the realities of those on the margins.