‘I can do anything I want, study anything I want, go anywhere I want. There are no barriers now,’ economics student Mzimkulu Ntakana, 21, says, summing up what being ‘born free’ in South Afr ica means to him. Yet, 28-year-old Candice Mama asks: ‘Born free from what? I don’t believe that people can be born free until [South Africa’s] economic inequalities are set right.’
Nelson Mandela’s vision of a thriving ‘rainbow nation’ raised high hopes at the time but, 25 years later, many of the ‘born- free’ generation still – struggle with: rates of youth unemployment ranging between 35 and 50 per cent. ‘If you don’t get a job, you create your own. You need to hustle,’ says Innocent Moreku, 22, who sells second-hand clothing on the side of the road. The majority of youths I interviewed believe that white South Africans still have better opportunities. ‘Their grandfathers and great-grandfathers have been working and saving up, whilst our grandfathers have been fighting,’ says Zinhle Mfaba, 24. When black South Africans do make money, they often have to provide for less-fortunate family members – also known as the ‘black tax’. Fashion designer Cindy Mfabe, 27, says: ‘We have to work double time because we have all this damage to fix.’
