Over recent years, a lot of attention has been placed on this so called born free generation. But why? Born in 1995, this generation is born into Democratic SA, free from the horrors of apartheid, and it is this generation that is coming of age, able to vote and become participant’s in democracy rather than beneficiaries. It is this reality that has drawn the attention, mainly political toward potentially powerful generation. They don’t carry baggage from apartheid for they were not there. They don’t feel loyalty to the African National Congress (ANC) because the ANC did not free them. Common perceptions. Born free is not a compliment.
The social character of the born-free generation is perceived to be carefree over-indulgence in leisure, entertainment, and promiscuity. Reference to a born free is used to describe the youth as an ignorant generation that has no regard for history but is at the same time happy to enjoy life under a free and democratic dispensation. Reality This conception is true; 18 year olds are generally pleasure seeking, so why is this used as a negative characteristic? It is used by the elder generations in the ANC to remind youth what they did for South Africa; an attempt to gain the born frees loyalty to ensure the ANC’s stronghold in the government.
This generation has been left with the task to restore the true vision of a Democratic South Africa that was fought so hard for by Nelson Mandela and many other liberation heroes’. If the ruling party is trounced among young voters any time soon, it will be because it squandered its patrimony. Change is inevitable as it is this Born Fee generation who are already showing signs of being fed up, with the standard of education, unemployment/crime, and BEE. BEE (black economic empowerment) is reminiscent of apartheid, and it is this change that has poisoned the true vision of striving to be a nation of equality.
Following the implementation of BEE (legalised form of corruption), conspicuous consumption began to take root within the government resulting in unchanged standards of education, unemployment, and crime. Ironic how born frees are criticized by being carefree, over-indulging in leisure, entertainment, and promiscuity even though they are in their teen years when politicians are selfishly using taxes, our money for their own leisure rather than resolving problems of poor standards of education, high crime rates and unemployment.
Born generation may have little regard for the past, but our government has little regard for the future of this democracy. How can we concentrate on the present while dwelling on the past? Or move forward while looking back? This generation is the true beginning — the beginning of a normal country, one in which people vote for a party because of what it is doing now, not for what it did a long time ago.