The Freedom Charter of the ANC - 1955

The Freedom Charter, 1955

Who revoked the Freedom Charter without telling South Africa

                                                                                                 Stes de Necker

The Freedom Charter of the ANC was, and still is, a unique document in that for the first time ever, the people of South Africa were actively involved in formulating their own vision of an alternative society which totally rejects Government oppression and exploitation .

The notion of a Charter was first mooted at the annual Congress of the African National Congress in August 1953. Prof Z K Mathews formally suggested convening a Congress of the People (C.O.P.) to draw up the Freedom Charter. The idea was adopted by the allies of the ANC, the South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured People's Organization and the South African Congress of Democrats.

The Congress of the People was not a single event but a series of campaigns and rallies, huge and small, held in houses, flats, factories, kraals, on farms and in the open. The National Action Council enlisted volunteers to publicize the C.O.P, educate the people, note their grievances and embark on a "million signatures campaign".

Thus when the people met on the 25th and 26th June 1955, the Congress of the People that was convened in Kliptown near Johannesburg, represented a crucial historical moment in establishing a new order based on the will of the people. It brought together 2,844 delegates from all over the country. The Freedom Charter proclaims that ''South Africa belongs to all who live in it" and that "all shall be equal before the law". It pledged to continue the struggle until a new democratic order was put into place.

The Charter, which was subsequently endorsed and adopted at the Congress of the People at Kliptown, Johannesburg, on 25th and 26th June, 1955, is a significant document which embodied the hopes and aspirations of the majority of the people of South Africa.

The Freedom Charter

Preamble

We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:

That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the People;

That our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;

That our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities;

That only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;

And therefore we, the People of South Africa, black and white together - equals, countrymen and brothers - adopt this Freedom Charter. And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won. 

THE PEOPLE SHALL GOVERN

Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws;

All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country;
The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex;

All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities, shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government. 

ALL NATIONAL GROUPS SHALL HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS

There shall be equal status in the bodies of the state, in the courts and in the schools for all national groups and races;

All people shall have equal right to use their own languages and to develop their own folk culture and customs;

All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride;

The preaching and practice of national, race or colour discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable crime;

All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.

THE PEOPLE SHALL SHARE IN THE COUNTRY'S WEALTH

The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people;

The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and the monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;

All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people;

All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.

THE LAND SHALL BE SHARED AMONG THOSE WHO WORK IT

Restriction of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it, to banish famine and land hunger;

The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;

Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;

All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;

People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.

ALL SHALL BE EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW

No one shall be imprisoned, deported or restricted without a fair trial;

No one shall be condemned by the order of any government official;

The courts shall be representative of all the people;

Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance;

The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people;

All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or belief shall be repealed.

ALL SHALL ENJOY EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS

The law shall guarantee to all their right to speak, to organize, to meet together, to publish, to preach, to worship, and to educate their children;

The privacy of the house from police raids shall be protected by law;

All shall be free to travel without restriction from countryside to towns, from province to province, and from South Africa abroad;

Pass laws, permits and all other laws restricting these freedoms shall be abolished.

THERE SHALL BE WORK AND SECURITY

All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers;

The state shall recognize the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;

Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work;

There shall be a forty-hour working-week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers;

Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants shall have the same rights as all others who work;

Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished.

THE DOORS OF LEARNING AND OF CULTURE SHALL BE OPENED

The government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life;

All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands;

The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honor human brotherhood, liberty and peace;

Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children;

Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit;

Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a mass state educational plan;

Teachers shall have all the rights of other citizens;

The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and in education shall be abolished.

THERE SHALL BE HOUSES, SECURITY AND COMFORT

All people shall have the right to live where they choose, to be decently housed and to bring up their families in comfort and security;

Unused housing space shall be made available to the people;

Rent and prices shall be lowered, food plentiful and no one shall go hungry;

A preventive health scheme shall be run by the state;

Free medical care and hospitalization shall be provided for all, with special care for mothers and young children;

Slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres;

The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the state;
Rest, leisure and recreation shall be the right of all;

Fenced locations and ghettoes shall be abolished and laws which break up families shall be repealed.

THERE SHALL BE PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP

South Africa shall be a fully independent state, which respects the rights and sovereignty of all nations;

South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of all international disputes by negotiation - not war;

Peace and friendship amongst all our people shall be secured by upholding equal rights, opportunities and status for all;

The people of the protectorates- Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland shall be free to decide for themselves their own future;

The right of the peoples of Africa to independence and self-government shall be recognized and shall be the basis of close co-operation.

Let all who love their people and their country now say, as we say here:

'THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY.'

Considering the current state of affairs in South Africa, nobody will be blamed  for asking what happened to the noble aspirations adopted by the people in 1955. It would even appear that the charter was repealed by Government without telling anybody about it!

The following article, which appeared in the Financial Times of 27 September 2012, serves as an excellent example of the frustration and disappointment amongst most South Africans with the way and manner the current Government discharges its imposed duties:

South Africa drifts under Jacob Zuma

“In the 18 years since the end of white minority rule, South Africa has rarely looked so shaky. Mining, the bedrock of the old economy, is in crisis as costs rise and commodity prices fall. Wildcat strikes are spreading across the industry and into other sectors. Companies are losing production, and the recognized unions, with which business was able to barter in the past, have lost influence over the labour force. Equally worrying, the political atmosphere is not only charged but increasingly poisonous. Opportunists such as Julius Malema, the disgraced former youth leader of the African National Congress, are exploiting a leadership vacuum to publicize the broader failures of the post-apartheid state and whip up support from the disenfranchised.

There is much that is great about South Africa, not least the peaceful transition from apartheid and the spirit of tolerance that has existed since. But Jacob Zuma, the president, has failed to grasp how this legacy is now under threat nor has he understood that the current crisis is a symptom of much deeper malaise. On Wednesday he addressed the UN General Assembly, and avoided the subject altogether. Back home he has failed to take charge and barely visited the mines. Instead he has put off dealing with the thornier issues until the ruling ANC policy conference in December. He assumes that the strikes will end with negotiation and compromise.

The immediate conundrum is not an easy one. After the massacre by police at Marikana of 34 striking mineworkers last month, Lonmin eventually bowed to public pressure and raised wages. It has succeeded in getting its platinum mines back in operation but at the cost of its profitability. Moreover, that concession has encouraged other miners to strike. There is no happy solution for an industry which is already operating on thin margins. If the mining houses cave in to workers’ wage demands, it will be at the cost of jobs. They will be forced to shut marginal mines. Yet if they tough it out, the strikes are liable to escalate and more production and possibly even lives will be lost.

The only other option is for the government to suppress the strikes by force. This is not a decision the ANC can take.

So, a wage increase may be the only way. The problem is that the industry will be smaller and less competitive as a result.

Miners are already South Africa’s best-paid workers. But by comparison with the ruling black elite they are paupers. It may be possible for the government and industry to win some breathing space by buying them and other workers off. But this will solve only a small part of the problem.

Restructuring the whole economy is the bigger and more important challenge. A small elite within the ANC has in effect bought into the apartheid economy it found in 1994. Remarkably, South Africa in terms of income distribution has become even more unequal since. What is needed to address that is much more than a debate about wages.

Radical reforms to education, the labour market, business regulation and land ownership are needed to spur labourintensive sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture. South Africa’s economy has grown on average by 3.6 per cent over the past decade. Even that pace of growth, far short of what is needed to absorb the legions of unemployed, is now faltering.

The necessary reforms will be painful. But deferring them, as the ANC wants to do, is not an option if further unrest is to be avoided. When the party meets for its five-yearly congress, it will decide whether Mr. Zuma is the man to chart the course. South Africa should be at the forefront of continental growth. But for too long the ANC has deferred the tough decisions.

That is why South Africa is now at a dangerous impasse.”

In a recent edition of Business Day, DR LUCAS NTYINTHYANE of Bloemfontein wrote:

“Violence and the daily dose of errors by political leadership are symbolic of a bigger and deeper malaise. Only those living in cloud cuckoo land will say everything is kosher.

Our country has become a comedian's paradise. A comedy of errors that is denting our image.

Commentators and analysts are pointing to the lack of political leadership. Everything else is a symptom of an absent leadership. It started with Thabo Mbeki.

Please don't blame President Jacob Zuma. It is not his fault. In an ideal world, Mr Zuma should have been banned from entering the Union Buildings. He is not fit to lead this country. Neither are Kgalema Motlanthe, Thabo Mbeki, Tokyo Sexwale or Mathews Phosa. They are part of the problem and cannot offer any viable leadership solution. Thanks to the selfishness of the African National Congress (ANC), we have Mr Zuma as a president.

Mr Zuma and the ANC, you don't own the country. You manage it on behalf of the electorate. This means a responsible, answerable leadership.”

This feeling of dissatisfaction is not limited to South Africa only.

The National Chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party, Andrew Phillips, called upon both the Federal Labour government and the Opposition to unanimously support the re-introduction of sanctions upon South Africa.

"It is becoming increasingly clear the situation in South Africa warrants international attention once again", Phillips said. "Despite noble announcements by the African National Congress (ANC) of its intent to make South Africa an egalitarian society in which all people could live in harmony and have equal opportunity-the reality is quite different."

His calls follow Woolworths SA asking that only "African Black candidates" apply for certain posts in job advertisements and South African Airways saying it will only appoint black pilots to its cadet pilot training programme.

Phillips said "Australia is dragging its feet in recognising the reality of the New South Africa. Euro MPs Barry Madlener and Lucas Hartong have already called for the EU to cease giving millions in aid to South Africa and have already raised the issue of what can only be described as cultural genocide in that country."

The Australian Protectionist Party recognises the right of all people, irrespective of racial, cultural or religious background to a safe homeland, self determination and the opportunity to control their national destiny in an increasingly globalised world.

"With the advent of so-called majority rule, minorities such as the Afrikaner communities are experiencing ever increasing disadvantage and persecution based on the colour of their skin" Phillips said.

"The South African government has done little to protect the lives of the nation's farmers and their families, actively promotes the on-going Anglicisation of the nation's government sector with the current debate of the "Languages Bill" and has reduced an estimated 10% of the nation's Afrikaner community to the poverty line through the introduction of a race based Affirmative Action policy - a situation President Zuma described as both "shocking and surprising", yet has done nothing to address".

"Australia was quick to take the moral high-ground against South Africa decades ago, now is not the time to expose our hypocrisy by refusing to re-introduce sanctions and apply meaningful diplomatic pressure upon the ANC regime,"

South Africa’s Constitution is recognized throughout the world as one of the best constitutions in the world. Everybody involved was pleased and proud to have been a part of it. Two of the leaders were even awarded Nobel Peace Prizes.

But now it seems that some of our ANC leaders are uncomfortable with the Freedom Charter and the Constitution. They claim to live by the rule of law, but when the law isn’t on their side, they’re happy to bend, ignore, or even break it.

The ANC still shouts that they want to reduce crime and corruption. That they want to improve the education and health systems. That they want to reduce unemployment and to provide homes for the homeless. So why can’t they do it!

Or is it all just about who gets to ride in fancy official cars and fly free in first-class on SAA? Is it about who gets to live in large official residences and attend lavish dinners?

None of these things are mentioned in the Freedom Charter or the Constitution.

In my previous article, written in Afrikaans, “Suid-Afrika se krag in diversiteit”, I said that the only recipe for peace, prosperity and progress in this country, is the speedy return to the aspirations of the Freedom Charter and the adherence to the provisions of the Constitution. 

Isn't it time that all South Africans, once again, unite around the noble ideals of the Freedom Charter? 

The question the ANC must ask itself is: Do the majority of the people of South Africa still vote for the ANC because they beleive in the policies of the party, or because the ANC was the mechanism which freed them from oppression in 1994. The preamble to the Freedom Charter makes it very clear:
That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the People; 

Does the ANC really still represents the will of the people?

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