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MOSSEL BAY NEWS & VIDEO - In a celebration in D'Almeida to mark Freedom Day, appropriately schoolchildren danced to the Song, Shackles, by Mary Mary. 

The chorus goes:
Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just want to praise you
I just want to praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I'm gonna praise you
I'm gonna praise you.

Mossel Bay executive Mayor Harry Levendal noted that one could not call oneself a Christian or be free if one still hated one's neighbour. Today, 27 April 2018, marks 24 years to the day since most of South Africa's population voted for the first time. But Mayor Levendal said "we have to set ourselves free". He said some people were still shackled by their attitudes.

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He said the municipality saw service delivery as "non-negotiable" and stressed its commitment to provide low and medium cost housing in Mossel Bay. He noted that Mossel Bay and Swartland (Malmesbury) had been found to be the most financially efficient municipalities in South Africa according to the results of an independent survey publicised this past week.

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Video: Sharlton Groenewald

Mayor Levendal said pre-democracy was about segregation - whites living separately from blacks and coloureds. He said whites attended ratepayers' meetings while blacks and coloureds lived in areas called "extensions", with no real names. 

This needed to be redressed. People who fought tirelessly to bring democracy after segregation needed to be acknowledged.

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