Feature: South Africa celebrates 21 years of democratic election

South Africans on Monday celebrated the country's 21st anniversary of its first fully democratic elections.

The celebrations took place at a time when the country was witnessing the latest wave of xenophobic violence, protests over poor service delivery and growing unemployment due to economic hardships.

The country gained freedom from the Apartheid rule in 1994 following the release from prison of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994.

A jubilant mood, characterized by songs, dances and political slogans dominated South Africa's Freedom day celebrations in Pretoria and some other places, where thousands gathered to mark the occasion.

In his address to the nation during the major event in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South African President Jacob Zuma described the country's transition to democracy as "a great success".

"We are celebrating our triumph over institutionalized racism, repression, state sponsored violence and the enforced division of our people based on race or ethnicity.

"All reviews that have been undertaken such as the 20 year review, Census 2011 and the reviews done by the private sector and some nongovernmental institutions, point to the fact that South Africa is a much better place to live in than before April 1994," Zuma said.

Zuma said that on the social front, his democratic government had given access to water, education and health care to millions of South Africans.

Zuma said, "We developed a model Constitution which includes a Bill of Rights. The Constitution also incorporates socioeconomic rights to promote access to basic services such as water, quality education, health, housing, social security and others.

"We are working to build a future where every citizen of the country lives in a community with proper infrastructure, be it road, school, clinic, recreation facilities, a community hall, electricity, water and sanitation."

He promised that the country's National Development Plan will soon start delivering on those areas where the government is lacking.

"With our massive industrialization and infrastructure programs, we consciously include black people, women, the youth and persons with disability to enable them to participate in the economy.

"To further expand black economic empowerment. We are on course to grow a new crop of black industrialists," Zuma said.

He also spent much of his speech denouncing the recent xenophobic violence that left seven people dead and thousands of foreign nationals displaced.

However, Zuma hit back at those African countries who have criticized his country for the xenophobic attacks. He said they should first ask themselves why their citizens are not in their countries.

Zuma said, "Much as we can have a problem, our brother countries contribute to this. Why are their citizens not in their countries?"

Turning to crime and violent protests against poor service delivery in parts of the country, Zuma described South Africans as angry people and called on them to seek for help to eliminate the anger, which he said is a result of the country's oppressive past.

"There is a lot of anger in our society. We need a psychological cure as a country to drop the anger. It is not just with the ordinary people, even in parliament we need to be cured," said Zuma.

Nevertheless, Zuma admitted that there was still a lot to be done. The country's current unemployment rate is above 24 percent. 10.2 million of the country's 54 million people are living below the poverty line.

Some say this has resulted in the escalation of violent protests over poor service delivery and crime by those who feel they are not getting a fair share of the economic benefits.

However, many are very positive. A 25-year-old South African, Dikiwe Nongxe who came to Pretoria to hear Zuma's speech, told Xinhua that she is positive about the direction which South Africa is taking.

"Things are much better. We are now free to do things and the government is doing its best to ensure we at least have quality education. I believe South Africa has a great future," Nongxe said.

However, others like 28-year-old Solly Mavuso want the government to focus more on the challenges faced by the youth.

"A lot of youth are not working. Some of them have graduated from tertiary, but they are still sitting at home. We need more programs targeting the youth,"Mavuso said.

Zuma, however, promised that his government will work hard to end the feeling of hopelessness and frustration among the youth and the poor citizens of the country. Endi