When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, a primary goal was to grant citizenship rights to all its people, in particular, to give the majority black South Africans rights they had been denied during colonialism and apartheid. This included the right to vote.
Apartheid segregated the population into ethnic groups. All but people classified as white were stripped of their rights. The 1996 constitution conferred upon citizens civil liberties such as the right to vote, movement, association and free speech as well as substantive rights such as access to land, health, education and employment.
But, as I argue in the Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Citizenship, full citizenship is about more than a legal status that grants rights. Full citizenship also means being able to fully participate in a society.
