South Africa Celebrates Freedom Day as Country Prepares for Critical Elections

April 27, 2024, was Freedom Day in South Africa and marked the 30th anniversary of the country’s historic General Elections, in which Black South Africans voted for the first time following the dismantlement of apartheid.    From April 26 – 29, 1994, millions of Black South Africans stood in lines that often stretched for miles to exercise their newly-acquired right to vote.  Amid ongoing threats and acts of violence by some factions of White groups opposing the new law of the land, Black voters refused to be intimidated or deterred from voting.     When the votes were ultimately tallied, the African National Congress (ANC) political party, headed by Nelson Mandela, was victorious and garnered 62.6% of the votes, which equaled over 12 million people.   “It was an extraordinary period in South Africa that saw Nelson Mandela become president and begin to lead South Africa to a new era of democracy,” said Detroit-based entrepreneur and educator Prof. James C. Mays, who estimates that he has traveled to South Africa about 30 times since the mid-1990s for business and philanthropic reasons through his companies – Africanize and African Heritage Tours and Travel – both registered in South Africa and the United States.  “Mandela continued...