It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994.
The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age of over 18 from any race group was allowed to vote.
Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites had only limited rights to vote.
Apartheid 'officially' began in South Africa in 1948, but colonialism and oppression of the African majority had plagued South Africa since 1652. After decades of resistance, a stalemate between the Liberation Movement and the Apartheid government was reached in 1988.
The ANC, South African Communist Party (SACP), Pan African Congress (PAC) and other organisations were later unbanned on 2 February 1990, and a non-racial constitution was eventually agreed upon and adopted in 1993. On 27 April 1994, the nation finally cast its vote in the first democratic election in the country. The ANC was then voted into power, and Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the President of South Africa on 10 May.
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