I believe so much in Freedom of Speech, I truly commend the Sowetan Editor for publishing their ad unlike other companies who chicken out. As a nation we need to look back,and do some introspection pertaining to what "Freedom" really means in South Africa.Does it mean having to watch my back while driving on the road,or worrying when my husband is late,or having to buy a 90 million wall to protect me and my loved ones or having to worry about being raped,or having to worry about my kid if he/she is safe,having to buy alarms and pay exorbitant insurances in my automobile? Wake up South Africa it's about time something gets done!

The ANC's government TV station (SABC-TV) could never have flighted that advert.
It would have been a slap in their own face with the reality and truth.

In short, it would amount to political suicide and had they allowed it to run it would have been a serious clm for the individuals that allowed it and there would have been some major 'smacks-on-the-wrists' at the broadcaster.

It is a pity it was not allowed to run on the state broadcaster - as more people would have been exposed to the everyday realities. Those officials huddled behind, secured, walled, fenced, patrolled and gated areas, might also have come to realise that there is a problem.

Unlike them, we travel at normal speeds, not under escorted patrols & not in convoys, skipping traffic lights etc. We have to stop at a highway offramp, that has a warning that it is a Hi-jack hotspot.

Let the message be heard, maybe someone will actually react

Thank you Sowetan for bringing the reality of our nation to light. Yes we have freedom, but are we really free when we constantly fear for for our kids, our lives? It is about time South Africa wakes up and acknowledges that we do have problems in our society, severe ones in fact, it is no ones fault but our responsibility. How can you deal with something if you do not acknowledge that it does exist. This is a wake up call to government and all South African society to stand together and do something to eradicate these social evils possessing our society. We celebrate Freedom day every year year-on-year yet our own people are dying due to violent crimes, HIV/AIDS, our kids and even grannies are raped and killed. Let us all stand together to reinstore the moral fabric of our society. I visited the apartheid museum, there is a section hailing the Freedom Era of post '94 yet even the displays show pictures of our people living in shacks with no water, sanitation, hungry children who cannot go to school, yet we hail Freedom??? Please!!!! Freedom is not about the BEE elite driving their Bentley's living in the Dainferns of this city, protected by boom gates and on site security guards...oh yes, these are the few free people that can honestly celebrate Freedom Day...But what about me, what about you, what about my brothers and sisters, my granny and grandpa...by the millions living in constant fear for their their lives, living with the anxiety of not having enough to eat, being disempowered by not having education, not having proper health care, being forced to desperate means of living at the risk of contracting deadly diseases, I am talking about these people, that South Africa...is still ignoring in this Freedom Era. Can they honestly celabrate Freedom in their Time??????

Our Nation and especially South Africa's political elite needs a wake up call of "megaton" proportions, about the reality of what's happening in South Africa today. And this is one but a small start.

The SABC was right on principle and conscience not to air that ad since it misses the point as to the kind of freedom South Africans yearned for.

Even if crime can be eradicated sOUTH aFRICANS WOULD STILL NOT HAVE ATTAINED THE KIND OF FREEDOM THAT SHOULD BE ASSOCIATED WITH THAT PARTICULAR DAY.tHIS WAS POLITICAL FREEDOM FROM THE YOKE OF OPPRESSION,REPRESSION AND SUPPRESSION TO WHICH IT HAS NOT YET BEEN REALISED SINCE WE STILL FEAR EACH OTHER AND DENYING EACH OTHER THEIR HUMAN BASIC RIGHTS ON SUBTLE REASONS. i HAPPENED TO BE PASSING THE CIVICS LAWNS AND i ENCOUNTERED GUARDS WITH DOGS CHASING PEOPLE AWAY FROM THOSE LAWS ARGUING THAT THAT WAS PRIVATE PROPERTY AND i HEARD THE VICTIMS DECRYING THE FACT THAT THEY ARE STILL LEAVING UNDER APARTHEID.

tHE sOWETAN IS A VERY OBTUSE AND FOOLHARDY PAPER AND i AM NOT SURPRISED THAT THEY ONLY WENT FOR THE MONEY AND NOT CARED A HOOT AS TO IF THIS AD IS COMPATIBLE OR NOT.tHEIR READERS HAVE BEEN CRIPPLED BY ADS PUBLISHED BY THIS PAPER AND SO ITS DECISION WAS ONE OF PARATISM AND GREED.

Yes we all know what freedom day is about and we all celebrate the freedom from apartheid rule that it represents. But don't you have to ask "freedom to do what?" What's the point of shrugging off racial oppression if we replace this with oppression of other sorts - be it gender based, abuse of our kids, oppression of greed, oppression of economic inequality driving crime, oppression from a society becoming aclimatised to violence as a means of getting what you what, any oppression of others, etc etc etc?

Copywriters often fail to realise that what is appropriate on a page may not be when delivered by other media; the message is received quite differently aurally to visually. The eye can return and reread, the mind check and redefine what is seen. But the mind frequently apprehends only partially what it hears, especially when it comes from a source on which one is not concentrating, like a radio commercial. The irony is lost in words that are heard and are likely to be comprehended as exhortation. Thus the reversal of meaning is not noticed, as it is by a reader, and this message becomes something close to hate speech. The same message delivered live, where the audience sees the manner of delivery as well as hears the vocal tone, is usually clear - Pieter Dirk Uys playing the Nationalist politician is an example of this.