This Freedom Day the DA in the Eastern Cape has deliberately chosen to host our main Freedom Day event here at the South End Museum.

This incredible museum tells the painful story of our segregated past but also tells the story of how South Africans left to their own devices chose to live, love and work together in this community until the heavy, interfering and divisive hand of the Apartheid state decided where and how individual South Africans should live, love and work.

These important stories showcase how South Africans from different racial, religious and political groups stood up against the Apartheid state so that we could enjoy political freedom in 1994. And, just as South Africans then united against the oppressive Apartheid state so too will they come together next year to remove the corrupt, self-serving and morally bankrupt ANC government and claim their economic freedom in 2024.

The Moonshot Pact announced by DA Leader John Steenhuisen is an important mission through which political parties and the whole of society can unite to guarantee political change in the next election. This will be an important first step on our journey towards real freedom, but real freedom can only be fully realised when individual South Africans are liberated from the shackles of dependency of the overbearing state and its destructive ideology.

In 1994 many freedoms were won but the heart of the problem had not changed and real freedom could therefore never be realised under the current government.

One political party, the National Party, which placed the state at the centre of society was simply replaced with another political party, the African National Congress, which also places the state at the centre of society.

Freedom is merely an illusion in a society where a political party controls the state and the state controls society. This is why a change in political power alone is not sufficient to deliver real freedom – yes, we need to change the government but we also need to reimagine and reinvent our society.

The vision for a new society needs to be one that empowers the individual and limits the control of the state over the lives of citizens.

In the DA’s vision of an open, opportunity society for all every person has the right, the space and the possibility to be oneself, and to make one’s life a success by one’s own efforts and talents.

The term “open, opportunity society for all” brings together three concepts:

Individual freedom under the rule of law;

Opportunity with responsibility; and

Full equality for all.

An Open Society is one characterised by transparency and accountability; a commitment to the constitution; security of priority and property; a strong and free thinking civil society and a general tolerance of difference.

While in an "open society" every person enjoys the same basic freedoms, these freedoms don't mean much if an individual cannot make use of them. If, for example, children can go to school but are so hungry they cannot learn they cannot be truly free. Ultimately, if a person is prevented from pursuing their dreams and using their talents because of the situation of their birth, then their freedom is not real.

Therefore in an opportunity society your path in life is not determined by the circumstances of your birth, including both your material and “demographic” circumstances, but rather by your talents and by your efforts. What people need is the opportunity to develop and educate themselves, they need the opportunity to visit a doctor when needed and apply for their dream job and to be able to compete on an equal footing. Only then can they really be themselves and realise their full potential.

The vision of a society for all promotes the absolute rejection of discrimination on grounds of race and other characteristics of birth as well as a clear acknowledgement that there is a long history of racial discrimination and oppression in South Africa, that it was wrong and that positive action is now needed to make it right; that positive action must be targeted at individuals who still suffer the effects of discrimination, not at groups; a clear acknowledgement that all South Africans are equal; and the active protection and promotion of the languages and cultures of all South Africans.

The realisation of this vision of an open, opportunity society for all is critical in achieving real freedom. It is the only vision which gives full expression to our Constitution and is one that can build a pathway from poverty to prosperity for millions of South Africans.

The revolution is dead!  Long live the open, opportunity society for all.