https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / Speeches RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

SA: Cyril Ramaphosa: Address by South African Deputy President, at the Freedom Charter Forum, University of Fort Hare (28/04/2015)

Cyril Ramaphosa
Cyril Ramaphosa

28th April 2015

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

It is an honour and a privilege to be at the University of Fort Hare to participate in this Freedom Charter Forum.

 

Advertisement

This forum is the first of several organised by the African National Congress to debate the significance and meaning of the Freedom Charter as we forge a new society.

 

Advertisement

This historic university is a fitting venue for this discussion.

 

The history of the Freedom Charter and the story of our democracy are closely connected with the University of Fort Hare.

 

For decades, this university was the cradle of African leadership.

 

Among its distinguished alumni are such leaders as Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Robert Mugabe and Seretse Khama.

 

It is therefore a matter of great hurt and shame that the sons and daughters of these leaders should be among those who have fallen victim to intolerance, violence and hate on the streets of our country.

 

We have a common ancestry. We have a shared history.

 

We have worked together on the mines and toiled together in the fields.

 

Together, we fought against colonialism. Together, we defeated apartheid.

 

The recent attacks on foreign nationals have no place in a country like ours, founded as it is on a Constitution that guarantees the rights and dignity of all people.

 

We applaud the stance taken by many South African communities in condemning these heinous acts.

 

We must work together to end the violence and build peaceful, inclusive communities.

 

We must demonstrate through our actions that we are part of a global community of nations that have struggled together to overcome discrimination and advance the rights of all.

 

Last week, I had the privilege of representing President Jacob Zuma at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Asian African Conference in Bandung in 1955.

 

The Bandung Conference, which took place just two months before the Congress of the People, was attended by leaders who together represented one third of the world’s population.

 

The people of South Africa were represented by two leaders of the Congress Alliance, Moses Kotane and Maulvi Cachalia.

 

The Bandung Conference took positions on important issues such as respect for fundamental human rights, recognition of the equality of all races and all nations, respect for justice, promotion of mutual interests and cooperation, and the settlement of differences and disputes by peaceful means.

 

It is significant that many of these universal principles were to also find expression in the Freedom Charter.

 

Comrades and compatriots,

 

From its formation, the African National Congress has provided leadership at all critical moments in our country’s history.

 

As the Union of South Africa was established to the exclusion of the majority of our people, African leaders came together to form the South African Native National Congress.

 

As the Second World War drew to a close and the Atlantic Charter adopted by the Allies appeared to point the way to a new world order, the ANC produced the Africans’ Claims in South Africa.

 

This document, published in 1943, recognised the right of all people to self-determination and to the fundamental freedoms enjoyed by people across the world.

 

In keeping with this tradition, it was an academic of this institution, Professor ZK Matthews, who proposed that a Congress of the People be convened to draw up a Freedom Charter.

 

It was not far from here, in the town of Cradock, at a provincial conference of the ANC in 1953, that he raised concern about the deepening crisis in race relations in South Africa.

 

He then said:

 

“I wonder whether the time has not come for the ANC to consider the question of convening a National Convention, a Congress of the People, representing all the people of this country irrespective of race or colour to draw up a Freedom Charter for the democratic South Africa of the future.”

 

The Congress Alliance took up this proposal with enthusiasm.

 

It called on all South Africans to speak of freedom. It called on them to draw up their demands for “the things that will make us free”.

 

An annexure to the report of the ANC NEC to the 1954 Annual Conference said:

“Never in South African history have the ordinary people of this country been enabled to take part in deciding their own fate and future… There is a need to hear the voice of the ordinary citizen of this land, proclaiming to the world his demands for freedom.”

From across the country, people responded in their numbers, leading to the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.


The Congress of the People was the biggest single gathering of representatives of the people in South Africa.

 

The Freedom Charter campaign had a profound effect on the Congress movement and its organisational structures and capability.

 

It cemented the non-racial character of the movement, both in terms of its content and its composition.

 

It enabled the Congress movement to expand its organisational reach beyond the urban areas, transforming it in a fully-fledged national movement.

 

As Ismail Vadi notes in his 1995 history of the Freedom Charter campaign:

“The campaign for the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter introduced within the liberation movement a degree of ideological uniformity and cohesion that did not exist previously.”

The Freedom Charter provided a clear and concise set of policies, aims and objectives and principles.

It served as a vision of a post-apartheid South Africa, which was to be used as a mobilising and organising weapon in the struggle for democracy.

It called for a fundamental restructuring of all aspects of South African society.
Today, 60 years later, we celebrate the Freedom Charter not as an historical artefact, but as an enduring vision of a free and democratic society that continues to inspire and guide our struggle.

 

It was the late Oliver Tambo, an alumni of this university, who said:

 

“The Freedom Charter was not just another political document, the Congress of the People was not just another conference. The Freedom Charter is the sum total of our aspirations, but more: it is the road to the new life.”

 

The clause of the Freedom Charter that is the subject of our discussion today says:

 

“The People Shall Share in the Country’s Wealth!”

 

This demand has been a consistent thread that runs through the policies and programmes of the ANC, defining its tactics and guiding its actions.

 

In the Strategy and Tactics document adopted at the Morogoro Conference in 1969, the ANC said:

 

“Our drive towards national emancipation is therefore in a very real way bound up with economic emancipation... Our people are deprived of their due in the country’s wealth; their skills have been suppressed and poverty and starvation has been their life experience. The correction of these centuries-old economic injustices lies at the very core of our national aspirations.”

 

As we cement the political gains of the last two decades, the task of economic transformation has gained in prominence.

 

At the ANC’s 53rd National Conference in Mangaung in 2002, we spoke about a second phase of our transition, which should have at its core “a concerted drive to eradicate poverty and to reduce inequality”.

 

This imperative is central also to the priorities outlined in the National Development Plan and the outcomes contained in government’s Medium-Term Strategic Framework.

 

Comrades and friends,

 

As we grapple with this momentous task, we need to turn to the Freedom Charter for guidance and perspective.

 

Among the most profound statements to come out of the Congress of the People was that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.

 

That statement was far more than an assertion of the right of residence in this country.

 

It was more than an assertion of a common citizenship.

 

It was a declaration that all South Africans, regardless of race, have a right to an equal share of the country’s natural resources.

 

They must share in ownership of, and access to, the means of production.

 

They must all have a fair share of national income and public resources.

 

The ‘economic clause’ of the Freedom Charter expands on this sentiment.

 

It says:

 

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

 

“The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and 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 wellbeing of the people;

 

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

 

Over the last six decades, there has been much debate about the ideological intent of the Freedom Charter.

 

Even today, there are several political formations that – although they have quite different political programmes – claim allegiance to the Freedom Charter.

 

What we do know is that the Freedom Charter envisages a mixed economy with both public and private ownership.

 

It envisages a developmental state that plays a leading role in ensuring economic access to those previously denied economic opportunity.

 

It envisages a state with sufficient legal authority and economic means to ensure decent working conditions and to take steps to improve the lives of the poor and marginalised.

 

It envisages a national democratic society.

 

The Freedom Charter should indeed be debated. It needs to be interpreted. Where necessary, it needs to be critiqued.

 

We must understand that Freedom Charter is not a set of policy instruments.

 

It is a vision of a new society, to which we must give effect.

 

Comrades,

 

Yesterday, we celebrated 21 years of democracy.

 

It is an appropriate time to ask ourselves what progress we have made in the last two decades in giving effect to the demand that the people shall share in the country’s wealth.

 

In 1994, we inherited an economy that had severe structural flaws and that was floundering.

 

Economic growth had slowed over many years.

 

Between 1980 and 1994, the economy grew at only 1.2% a year.

 

During this period, per capita GDP had declined and investment had fallen significantly.

 

Public debt had reached unsustainable levels. The budget deficit was growing.

Foreign exchange reserves were low.

Employment had been in decline for many years.

In the late 1970s, around 60% of the working age population was employed – about the same as the international norm.

By the early 1990s, that figure had fallen to less than 40%.

Since then, we have managed to turn around an economy in decline and establish a foundation for growth and development.

We have achieved and maintained macroeconomic stability.

We have managed public finances prudently, brought down public debt and reduced inflation.

From 1998 until the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, South Africa had the longest recorded period of uninterrupted economic growth in its history.

In the first sixteen years of ANC government, the economy grew twice as fast as it had over the last 16 years of apartheid.

There has been an increase in fixed investment, by both the state and private sector.

From less than 15% in 1993, investment as a percentage of GDP had grown to nearly 25% by 2008.

We have undertaken unprecedented investment in social infrastructure and services, bringing houses, electricity, water and sanitation to millions of poor South Africans.

The middle class has grown as more black South Africans have been lifted out of poverty and gained access to new opportunities.

There has been a reduction in both absolute and relative poverty since 1994. This has largely been due to social grants, better access to education and health services, and increased economic participation.

Our progress in addressing unemployment has been mixed.

While the absolute number of people employed has increased – from 9.5 million in 1994 to 15.2 million in 2013 – the proportion of the working age population in employment has improved only slightly.

Our unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high, because while the number of jobs created has been increasing, the number of people looking for work has increased even faster.

More young people have been entering the labour market each year. More women are entering the workplace and urbanisation is bringing more people into the cash economy.

So, despite the progress made, we still have a long way to go.

Too many of our people still live in poverty.

Levels of inequality have remained among the highest in the world, with the richest 10% of households receiving over half the national income.

Household savings have been declining steadily since the 1990s. South African consumers are highly indebted.

There has been slow growth in those sectors of the economy – like manufacturing and agriculture – that provide the greatest opportunity for job creation and improved export earnings.

Mining production has declined since 1994 and the industry has lost around 80,000 jobs.

Although we have improved access to schools, universities and other educational institutions, our educational outcomes do not meet the requirements of a dynamic modern economy.

These economic indicators are important because they provide a measure of the extent to which we have been able to restore the wealth of our country to the people.

They also provide a sense of the constraints we must contend with and the opportunities we must exploit to advance this effort.

Comrades,

The 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter is about celebration.

But it is also about reflection and mobilisation.

We must use this occasion to reflect on our gains and short-comings. We must then  mobilise all South Africans not only to speak of freedom and problems, but to work together to achieve our total freedom.

If we are to realise the vision of the Freedom Charter, we need an unrelenting focus on the economy. It must be placed at the centre of all our efforts.

For the people to share in the country’s wealth, we need faster growth.

The National Development Plan maintains that we need to achieve over 5% annual GDP growth to reach our economic and social objectives. By 2030, our GDP per capita needs to have doubled.

This means we need to produce more.

Specifically, the productive sectors of the economy – like manufacturing, agriculture and mining – need to account for a greater share of economic output and employment.

We need to add more value to the mineral resources we extract through greater beneficiation, reducing our dependence on the export of unprocessed commodities, boosting domestic manufacturing and creating jobs.

Through the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the New Growth Path, we are implementing measures to reconfigure the industrial landscape.

We need to reduce the cost of production.

This includes the work currently underway to ensure a more efficient regulatory framework and lower the prices of key inputs like electricity, telecommunications, education and health.

We  are innovating. We are working to improve productivity and become more competitive.

Among other things, government and business will be working more closely to incentivise research, development, innovation and the more effective application of technology.

We are developing new markets for our products especially on the African continent which has just become our biggest trading zone.

Although there has been strong growth in the domestic consumer market, South Africa is a relatively small market, particularly when compared to its partners in BRICS.

Africa has a billion people and is one of the fastest growing regions in the world.

We  are working to achieve greater economic integration and diversify the range of goods and services that we export.

Faster growth is essential if we are to realise the vision of the Freedom Charter.

But it is not sufficient. We need to ensure that growth is also inclusive.

The benefits of growth need to be more equitably shared.

The most important instrument to achieve this is faster job creation.

But we face a significant challenge.

We are confronting the reality that our economy does not have the skills to compete with countries with skills intensive industries, and  our cost structure is too high to be competitive in labour intensive sectors.

While we would like all of our workers to get jobs in globally competitive sectors that pay high wages and provide comprehensive benefits, this will not be immediately possible.

Because we need to create work for the millions of unemployed that we have today, some of the jobs initially created will be relatively low-skilled and relatively low-paying.

In our situation, where some sectors of the economy already provide decent jobs, we need to combine mass absorption into the labour market with a determination to protect and expand access to these decent jobs.

We have to promote and grow industries that are labour absorbing, such as mining, agriculture, construction, hospitality and small businesses.

We also have to grow the more advanced sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, financial services, telecommunications and businesses services.

More effective provision of a broader social wage will enable even the poorest of people to have a decent standard of living, to build the capabilities to get better jobs, higher incomes and a broader range of benefits.

Skills development is critical to the achievement of economic emancipation.

Since 1994, the democratic government led by the ANC has significantly increased enrolment in schools, universities and colleges. More than 7 million learners attend no-fee schools today.

South Africa spends about 5% of its GDP on basic education. In the next few years, much of this will go to improving school infrastructure, ensuring all learners receive suitable learning materials, and improving teacher training.

Priority is being given to the expansion of Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges, while improving their relevance, efficiency and quality.

The university education system will also continue to expand.

Enrolment is expected to grow from 950,000 students in 2012 to approximately 1.1 million students in 2019, and to 1.6 million students by 2030.

The amount disbursed annually by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme has grown by approximately 270% since 2008, and is expected to grow even further in the next few years.

As we improve our educational outcomes, our immediate priority is to get unemployed people, particularly the youth, into jobs.

Our public employment programmes can assist in facilitating this.

Over 5 million work opportunities have been created since the establishment of the Expanded Public Works Programme, and we are determined to meet our target of creating another 6 million during the term of this government.

Not only does this programme provide income for poor households.It also provides training and experience that can assist participants in making the transition to permanent employment.

As we pursue faster, inclusive growth, we will move faster to change patterns of ownership and control.

We have recently refined our broad-based black economic empowerment policies to broaden their reach and deepen their impact.

The codes of good practice have been revised to be more effective in promoting enterprise development, supplier development and skills acquisition.

President Jacob Zuma recently launched the black industrialist programme, which seeks to unlock the potential of black entrepreneurs in a way that contributes to the re-industrialisation of our economy.

Government has committed R1 billion to this programme, which will support black-owned manufacturing companies with access to finance, access to markets, skills development, and quality and productivity improvement.

We have done much to advance the participation of black South Africans and women in the management of the economy.

Most progress has been made in public enterprises; progress in the private sector has been much slower.

We need therefore to be more determined in pursuing employment equity, and be more proactive in developing managerial skills and capabilities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Freedom Charter provides a vision of an economy that is fundamentally different from what we inherited.

It calls for radical economic transformation.

It is our responsibility to effect this change.

As cadres of the broad democratic movement, as students, as academics, as progressive citizens, we need to use this 60th anniversary to reflect, think, organise, mobilise and conscientise.

We need to debate the Freedom Charter, in our institutions, in our clubs, in our media and in our communities.

Like the amavolontiya of the 1950s, we need to reach out to our people to discuss the Freedom Charter.

Like them, we need to be disciplined, we need to be earnest, we need listen to the people and work together to address their concerns.

The anniversary of the Freedom Charter gives us an opportunity to broaden and deepen the political consciousness.

In an article written on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the revolutionary intellectual Mzala said:

“We defend, fight and die for, the ideals enshrined in the Freedom Charter, not because it is an all-time document, but because it is a revolutionary guide to a life free of misery and oppression.

“It is the demands of the people that have yet to be won. These are the kind of ideals which most nations achieve, ideals for which men and women stubbornly and heroically resist torture in detention and gruelling lives in exile, ideals for which our martyred dead stood firm and unflinching to the last minute of their lives.

“Such ideals cannot be taken lightly.”

So let all who love their people and their country now say:

“These freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.”

I thank you.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options
Free daily email newsletter Register Now