Natalie Thinks

Lately, I hear a lot about how little has changed for black South Africans, and for too many this is sadly true. Too many still live in tin shacks on muddy, trash-strewn streets where they are daily prey to the drugged-up degenerates who have no qualms in violating their own neighbours, people, who are only slightly less down-trodden than themselves. But so much HAS changed. The country I now inhabit is vastly different from the one I grew up in.  As a 40-something (okay, nearly 50 year old), I came of age at the cusp of change. I was 21 and eligible to vote in the ‘92 ‘whites-only’ referendum to end apartheid.  It felt so good to go and vote ‘YES’ – FOR GOD”S SAKE YES!  And then two years later, to stand in those long, iconic queues in the first democratic election of 27 th April, 1994. I was raised in a politically liberal home where my parents voted PFP (Progressive Federal Party) their whole lives.  I know some of my black compatriots will sneer at this, but it was no sm