First published in Daily Maverick 168

At the time I was rowing a double scull around Robben Island in the 2020 Prescient Freedom Paddle, a 30km race that was meant to be held on 27 April to celebrate freedom and all that it means to us. My partner and I had navigated our way around the island, past the harbour on the east side, the shipwrecks on the south side, and were paddling down the west of the island – a stark view made starker by the guard towers and concrete turrets. 

The wind had picked up, creating a nasty cross-swell and I was having to dig deep – one really shouldn’t attempt these events without the necessary training. But rowing is wonderfully rhythmic, and when combined with your breath it becomes a bit like a mantra in meditation, a fixed point that you go back to over and over again.

And so I came to contemplate freedom, what it means to me, to us as a society and to what extent freedom as a “right” comes with responsibility and a duty to care for our fellow humanity.

The Nazi resister and German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer observed that “freedom is not … a possession, a presence, an object … In truth, freedom is a relationship between two persons. Being free means being free for the other, because the other has bound me to them. Only in relationship with the other am I free.”

It seems an appropriate time to contemplate this for without doubt 2020, Covid-19 and the lockdowns have tested our understanding of freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. And, given the reminder this week about the poor state of South Africa’s finances, it seems appropriate to ask if we have used our freedom, ushered in with the advent of democracy, to the best of our ability?

Freedom is a contested word, meaning different things to different people and at different times in history. But if we examine the ideal and reality of freedom throughout the ages, what we call “freedom” is an ideal that consists of three components: sovereign freedom; political freedom; and individual freedom.

Sovereign freedom is probably the easiest to agree on. It’s the most basic concept of freedom, namely freedom from foreign control. And this need to safeguard South Africa’s democratic national sovereignty, our fundamental right to self-determination and independence is the reason the ANC and its allies are opposed to the notion of approaching the IMF for any kind of assistance.

Pity then, that the governing party (and many others around the world) won’t acknowledge that freedom comes with responsibility – to manage the country, its finances and institutions – for the benefit of all the people in the land, and not just a few.

The second component is political freedom, the freedom to vote, hold office, and critically, to hold elected officials accountable to the people. It is quite possible to have political and national freedom but not individual freedom. Ancient Greece had national and political freedom, but none of the individual freedoms we expect today. While many around the world, South Africans included, have the right to vote, whether they are able to hold politicians accountable is debatable.

Individual freedom is more complex. In its most basic form, individual freedom is the absence of coercion, and the freedom to live as you choose as long as you harm no one else. Each nation, each epoch in history, perhaps each individual, may define this ideal of individual freedom in different terms. In its noblest of expressions, individual freedom is enshrined in our Constitution. It is freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.

But what good are these individual freedoms without economic freedom? A growing number of studies have been carried out into the relationship between economic freedom and human wellbeing.

The concept of economic freedom relates to the degree of personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom of competition, and protection of privately owned property afforded by society. And we only have to look around us to see that we have not managed to deliver economic freedom to the majority of our countrymen and women. Until that changes, individual freedom cannot be guaranteed. DM