The 16th day

THE 16th DAY

On the 16th May 1996 the heavens and the earth have agreed that a different version of thinkers and liberators would be born and as agreed it happened. A family was blessed with a son, he was given the name Ronewa which simply means ‘Given’. They all expected different things from him at an early age because that’s how it is when it comes to the African destiny, when a baby is born within a family he/she is given a name which somehow will dictate his/her life. On that thunderstorms were all over and it rained as if it was the first time God decided to send down heavy rainfalls. Little did people knew that it marks the beginning of a new era, it indeed marked a beginning of new ways of thinking.

It is the same day in 218 where Julia Maesa, aunt of the assassinated Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus. She declares her 14-year-old grandson Elagabalus to be emperor of Rome. Macrinus is later deposed. Julia Maesa was a Roman citizen and daughter of Gaius Julius Bassianus, priest of the sun god Heliogabalus, the patron god of Emesa (modern Homs) in the Roman province of Syria. Grandmother of both the Roman emperors Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, she figured prominently in the ascension of each to the title at the age of fourteen. She was also the maternal aunt of the emperors Geta and Caracalla. It is again on the very same day 946 wherein Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favour of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. Emperor Suzaku was the 61st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Suzaku's reign spanned the years from 930 through 946.

 Little did the people know that on this day in 1204 Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. On can conclude that it was not a mistake that on the very same day in 1996 Ronewa was born. But what we all couldn’t understand is why he was born on this specific historical date wherein a lot of things took. Not just anything but events that went down the books of history. In 1532 Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England. In the year 1770 a 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France. One would agree that on the year 1966 The Communist Party of China issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

In Africa it is again on the very same year on the 15th of January wherein King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho was killed in a car accident. Moshoeshoe II previously known as Constantine Bereng Seeiso, was the paramount chief of Lesotho, succeeding paramount chief Seeiso from 1960 until the country gained full independence from Britain in 1966. He was king of Lesotho from 1966 until his exile in 1990, and from 1995 until his death in 1996. Moshoeshoe's political power was always limited, and his reign was interrupted twice. Early in his reign, Leabua Jonathan became Prime Minister of Lesotho and gained control of the government. Jonathan suspended Moshoeshoe in 1970 in order to re-establish his control in the country after his party lost the election. Moshoeshoe went into temporary exile in the Netherlands. A few months later, when he gained control, Jonathan allowed Moshoeshoe to reassume the title of king. Jonathan was himself overthrown in 1986 and the king gained some power, but he was deposed in 1990, while his son Letsie III was forced to take his place as king. Moshoeshoe went to exile in the United Kingdom. Moshoeshoe was restored to the throne in 1995. The following year he was killed in a car accident, and Letsie became king again a month later. During the political turmoil of 1970 and 1990, and for a month after his death in 1996, his wife and Letsie's mother, Mamohato, acted as regent.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission began its formal hearings on the year 1996 on the 15th of April. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid in 1994. Witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences, and some were selected for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution. The TRC, the first of the 1003 held internationally to stage public hearings, was seen by many as a crucial component of the transition to full and free democracy in South Africa. Despite some flaws, it is generally (although not universally) thought to have been successful. The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation was established in 2000 as the successor organisation of the TRC.
On the 8th of May 1996 South Africa's new constitution is adopted by the Constitutional Assembly. A constituent assembly or constitutional assembly is a body or assembly of representatives composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution. As the fundamental document constituting a state, a constitution cannot normally be modified or amended by the state's normal legislative procedures; instead a constituent assembly, the rules for which are normally laid down in the constitution, must be set up. A constituent assembly is usually set up for its specific purpose, which it carries out in a relatively short time, after which the assembly is dissolved. A constituent assembly is a form of representative democracy. Unlike forms of constitution-making in which a constitution is unilaterally imposed by a sovereign lawmaker, the constituent assembly creates a constitution through "internally imposed" actions, in that members of the constituent assembly are themselves citizens, but not necessarily the rulers, of the country for which they are creating a constitution. As described by Columbia University Social Sciences Professor Jon Elster: Constitutions arise in a number of different ways. At the non-democratic extreme of the spectrum, we may imagine a sovereign lawgiver laying down the constitution for all later generations. At the democratic extreme, we may imagine a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage for the sole task of writing a new constitution. And there are all sorts of intermediate arrangements.
On the following day which is the 9th of May 1996 The National Party withdrew from the coalition government, giving the African National Congress full political control. The National Party was a political party in South Africa founded in 1915 and disbanded in 1997. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It was in opposition during the World War II years but it returned to power and was again in the government from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. At this time, it began implementing its policy of racial segregation, known as "Apartheid". The policies of the party also included the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture.
During the 1980s, large fractions of the party's support base whose members were unhappy about the party's gradual dismantling of the apartheid system left for the Conservative Party. After 1990, the National Party opened up its membership to all racial groups and rebranded itself a civic nationalist, rather than an ethnic nationalist, conservative political force. It participated in the Government of National Unity between 1994 and 1996. In an attempt to distance itself from its past, the party was renamed the New National Party in 1997. The attempt was largely unsuccessful and the new party was disbanded in 2005.
The African National Congress (ANC) is the Republic of South Africa's governing social democratic political party. It has been the ruling party of post-apartheid South Africa on the national level, beginning with the election of Nelson Mandela in the 1994 election, the first after the end of apartheid. Today, the ANC remains the dominant political party in South Africa, winning every election since 1994. Its leader Matamela Ramaphosa is the incumbent head of state.

Founded on 8 January 1912 by John Langalibalele Dube in Bloemfontein as the South African Native National Congress, its primary mission was give voting rights to black and mixed race Africans and, from the 1940s, to end Apartheid. The ANC originally attempted to use nonviolent protests to end apartheid, however, the Sharpeville massacre resulted in the deaths of 69 black Africans and contributed to deteriorating relations with the South African government. On 8 April 1960, the administration of Charles Robberts Swart, banned the ANC and forced the party to leave South Africa. After the ban, the ANC formed the Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation) to fight against apartheid utilizing guerrilla warfare and sabotage. On 3 February 1990, State President F. W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and released Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990. This was because the then government could see that they could no longer fund apartheid. On 17 March 1992, the apartheid referendum was passed by the voters removing apartheid and allowing the ANC to run in the 1994 election. Since the 1994 election the ANC has performed better than 60% in all general elections, including the most recent 2014 election.