After thirty years of democracy, the heroes of freedom have been replaced by the hyenas of stealing

Dear DM168 reader,

Thirty years ago today, almost 20 million of us woke up at the crack of dawn to wait patiently in lengthy queues to vote in our country's very first democratic election.

Whether in remote rural villages or big, bustling cities, people from all walks of life, every racial, tribal and cultural group and every political persuasion in South Africa converged at voting stations to decide whom they would entrust with the governance of their future.

I was 29 years old then and took leave from my job as a features writer at Tribute magazine to volunteer at the voting station in Bezuidenhout Valley in Johannesburg. I wanted to play a part in this wonderful, momentous end to the horrible years of violence that preceded the election. As a reporter, I had witnessed and written about horrific incidents such as the Boipatong massacre, during which machete- and spear-wielding IFP members brutally murdered 41 people.

I didn't want to write about the election, I wanted to be a part of making it happen freely and fairly, not in support of any party but in support of the process of democracy in action.

I worked side by side with other...