Ramaphosa praises the role of the Free State in his Freedom Day address

President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed the Free State as the place where South Africa’s fire for freedom was lit.

The president has been speaking at the Dr Rantlai Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein, where the government is hosting this year’s Freedom Day rally.

Ramaphosa said that Bloemfontein is where the ANC was formed in 1912, with the primary purpose of overturning the Apartheid government.

A year later, women from the then Orange Free State kicked off anti-pass protest campaigns which later broke out countrywide. 

“Instead of being broken, the women of the Orange Free State became more determined because they would not accept a system that would deny them dignity and freedom. Today we celebrate that here in the free state, the struggles that were waged by the women of the province and other parts of the country have succeeded.”