I Long For The South Africa Where I Truly Could Be Free

Dear NEASA member
 
I came across the following inspirational letter by Georgia du Plessis on Network 24. Click here to view the original letter in Afrikaans.
 
I long for the South Africa where I truly could be free

I lived in South Africa for the most part of my life – a land of poverty, violence, murder.
 
Nevertheless, I was never as free as I was then.  Free to be creative in the civil community, required to be creative because of poverty, determined to succeed since there are less opportunities, free at your place of work because there is less bureaucracy, free to turn my face to the sun and laugh out loud while others laugh with me, free to cry passionately, free to be kind, free to sit under a tree, free to make mistakes, free to stand up again and free to live.
 
I decided to complete my studies in a European country at the age of 29.  I am going to live here for 3 years.
 
A country with more money, more social-economic equality, efficient medical care for all and little poverty.  Maybe one of the safest countries in the world.
 
A country where I have to wait for weeks to get permission to plant a tree, a country with land structures and rules, a country where bureaucracy stalks my soul like a thief in the night, a country where you teach the people on the street to smile, a country where passion is seen as extravagance, a country with cold souls and where tears are hidden as if in a fog, a country with a hunger for warmth, a country where I cannot fall to my knees and cry passionately, a country of ballet and opera – but no real drama, no space, no breath – no freedom.
 
I long for my beloved country, my broken country – in spite of everything – because there I was free.
  
Georgia du Plessis
Europe – Network 24
 
“Privileged and challenged to be South African. We're all in this together”.

NEASA shares the view of this inspirational letter! We would like to thank Georgia for allowing NEASA to share it with our members!
 
Regards
 
Gerhard Papenfus