Freedom Next Time, theatre
Review
By Langelihle Elsie Skade
From the Ga-Rankuwa campus in Gauteng, a group of Tshwane University of Technology students curated a play to highlight the injustices of our country, freedom and equality took centre stage as they reminded us of how, despite more than 30 years of being a democratic country, there was still so much are severely lacking. The plight of unemployment, lack of infrastructure, high crime, and hierarchy in our country was bought to the forefront by the students in their 90 minute performance.
Our citizens still question the justice system and what it really means to be a democratic country when there is still so much lack, and inequality that strongly prevails.
The play “Freedom Next Time” is a slow burn, as the message is only conveyed towards the end of the play. The production first showed on Wednesday 2 July at the Rehearsal room, in Makhanda. This play highlights the social injustice and gender-based violence we face in South Africa in an easily identifiable manner as these are some issues we can relate to in our communities and sometimes within our families.
In the first scene of the play, Moseka argues with his wife Gloria because of his excessive abuse of alcohol which is caused by stress due to being unemployed, instead of going to search for a job. Moseka questions his worth and views himself as useless, as he is unable to provide for his family. This causes a serious strain on his marriage and he finds himself constantly arguing with his wife. Amidst the heated exchange of words between the two, the couple receives terrible news about the sudden death of their youngest child. The child fell into a toilet pit latrine and died instantly. This emotional scene depicted how the lack of infrastructure and empty promises made by the government to replace damaged infrastructure pose a risk to the lives of all citizens, especially children.
In the last scene of the play, set in a classroom environment, each student had to present an oral in front of their teacher and this is where the learners revealed critical information about the statistics of some of our social ills. During the oral the students revealed that In 2024 the sexual abuse of pupils by teachers increased by 5.4% and 48 teachers were arrested, but some were released and reinstated back to their posts. Reported rape cases were 296 in South Africa and 225 took place within a learning environments and 28 inside institutions while 21 took place in Special schools. Provinces with the most cases were Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Limpopo in 2024. In the play when the student mentioned the sexual abuse of teachers towards learners, this agitated their teacher who then stormed out of the classroom.
Freedom Next time planted a seed in the audience, as they were confronted with the reality of their so-called democratic country. Bathabile Jandi, one of the cast members of Freedom Next Time, said that the inspiration behind the curated play came from being triggered by witnessing the people of the Eastern Cape battling with dilapidated buildings and lack of infrastructure.
“We are here to show the people of the Eastern Cape that they are not alone, that we see what they go through – they are seen and heard,” said Jandi.
