Brand New Day...

If you were born today, in 1990, Nelson Mandela would still have been in jail.

The ANC was still to be unbanned.

F W de Klerk was the president of South Africa, the last white man to be in that position in this country.

South Africa stood on the brink of change. Apartheid was dying, and you were taking your first breath of life.

If you were born to a typical black family, you would most probably have been born in a Government Hospital.

In Cape Town, it would most likely have been Groote Schuur Hospital (loosely translated, Big Shed)

That Hospital was probable staffed by white nurses, who were trained by the then still Apartheid Government.

The Doctor, probably also a young white man, doing his internship, would most probably have delivered you as a baby.

The same white hands that could so easily have carried a R 1 rfile, in a township, under conscription, under the same Apartheid regime.

So, to recap - you were born in an Apartheid Hospital, delivered by an Apartheid trained doctor, nursed by a white nurse - guess what? You were born in Apartheid, From Apartheid, By Apartheid!!

But, something else was born that year too...the birth of a stillborn promise! This is your legacy...

You would still go to a school in a Township - Kalafon, Tembisa, Khayaletsha, Kayamandi....

Your teachers who fought in the struggle, would continue to struggle...

Your brother and sisters, those old enough to work, would still earn minimum wage...

Your cousin would still be working for that people in Bishops Court - making tea...

But now you had freedom..

And a promise...

Houses, Uncle Joe promised, would be for everyone, then sadly, he died...

Jobs, promised, but not delivered, but you are free..

Healthcare, promised, but who was to pay for this?

But a promise must be kept, you say?

Today, you turn 21, and what do you have to look forward to?

If your parents were lucky, they moved to a newer township, less stink, maybe running water?

Maybe, just maybe, you were lucky enough to get electricity..

Running water? Toilets?

You, last Apartheid baby, you laugh? you cry?

So, Happy Birthday, hope you have a good one, hope your dreams come true, cause this is what you have..

A dream..

A dream where people will not have to live in fear,

where you are your master...

where no one will discriminate against you...

where equal opportunities will abound...

So, today I give you your 21st birthday present...

It used to be a key, and big party..

The key symbolized the unlocking of your adulthood, perhaps locking the closed door of your youth...

You are an adult now..

Take responsibility

And like I always tell my children...the first rule...don't panic