Deputy Speaker, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, Freedom Day commemorations should remind us of the heavy price our struggle heroes and heroines, both deceased and alive, paid for our freedom. Freedom Day commemorations provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the challenges facing our young nation and the progress we have made since the dawn of democracy.
Since 1994 we have made impressive strides in firmly entrenching the gains of political freedom. Today our people enjoy basic human rights and have access to economic opportunities. Considering our painful and divided past, we should pat ourselves on the back for managing to build a united country.
However, there is a bitter taste in the mouths of our people. We celebrate our freedom from apartheid and remember those who have sacrificed for this freedom, but are we really free when millions of our people are still shackled by the yoke of poverty and unemployment, when service delivery has come to a grinding halt in some of the poorest provinces in the country, when corruption in different spheres of government remains stubbornly high?
These challenges mean that the political freedom gained in 1994 has yet to translate into economic freedom for our people. Political freedom without social and economic freedom is a hollow concept. With our political freedom firmly established, steps should be taken to ensure that our people's dreams of economic freedom come true, and thus ensure there is real prosperity for all of us. I thank you.