SA celebrates Freedom Day

SA celebrates Freedom Day amid socio-economic challenges

President Thabo Mbeki will join millions of South Africans across the country today in celebrating the 14th anniversary of freedom and the end of apartheid rule. Thousands of people are expected to gather at Lansdowne stadium in Cape Town this morning for the main national celebrations of Freedom Day.

On April 27 in 1994 millions of black South Africans voted in the country's first multi-racial elections, a historic poll that ended white minority rule. With just a few months before the end of his term in office, President Mbeki's Freedom Day speech is expected to highlight the milestones and difficulties faced by his government in the past few years.

Meanwhile socio-economic challenges like unemployment, lack of housing and widespread poverty continue to plague the country. The president has warned that it will always be impossible for the nation to say it has fully restored the dignity of its entire people as long as this situation persists.