A special project team to coordinate the commemorations for the Ten Years of Freedom has been set up in the Presidency of South Africa. This team has the full support of Cabinet and is made up of senior officials from the Presidency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs and the Department of Arts and Culture. It is clearly a powerful body within government.

The Ten Years of Freedom refers to the ten years of democracy South Africa has experienced since the first full democratic elections were held in 1994. The culmination of a series of year-long celebrations is set for April 27, 2004 - the anniversary date of the historic election that put the African National Congress firmly in control of government.

On April 27, there will be a huge music concert at a stadium in the Pretoria area, and if an election date is announced early this year, it is conceivable that President Thabo Mbeki could be inaugurated for his second term of office as President of our young democracy.

The Project team is serious about promoting the Ten Years of Freedom to include members of all races and to use the celebrations as a unifying exercise in a country that is still deeply divided along racial lines. However, it has already picked up warning signs that the white population might not be willing to buy into the celebrations.

White South Africans did not turn out in large numbers for the December 16th, Reconciliation Day celebrations, and now there are fears that the Ten Years of Freedom Commemorations might be perceived as yet another "Black Party".

Black South Africans will see the absence of white people at the commemorations as further evidence that most whites still hanker after the privileges of the apartheid past. Blacks will believe that whites do not care about the long and bitter struggle for democracy.