26 June 2002
Kliptown, Soweto
The Acting Premier of Gauteng,
The Minister of Home Affairs,
MECs present,
Executive Mayor of Johannesburg,
Secretary General of the ANC,
Members of the National Executive Committee of the ANC,
Veterans of the struggle for liberation,
Community of Kliptown,
Distinguished guests,
Fellow South Africans,
We are gathered here today, to pay tribute to our compatriots, who 47 years ago, showed amazing foresight, courage and patriotism, in laying the foundation for non-racialism and democracy in our country.
The people of Kliptown must surely be proud of the special place that this area enjoys in the history of our country, given that the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People on 26 June 1955, continues to guide us in all our efforts to transform our society.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are truly honoured to have amongst us here today the veterans of Kliptown, who attended the signing and adoption of the Freedom Charter. Our veterans remain a constant reminder to all of us of where we come from, and the work that lies ahead.
It is therefore heartening, and appropriate, that the proposed developments, Mr Acting Premier, will include the Freedom Charter Monument and Museum on the Square of Dedication, named after an icon of our struggle for freedom and justice.
The development is named after a leader who has made enormous contribution to our struggle, a man of the people because of his humble nature, uTata Sisulu, who recently turned 90 years old.
It is being named after one of our key strategists in the ANC, who incidentally recruited Cde Madiba and Cde Tambo into the ANC. Xhamela is an inspiration to us all, and his generation is a reminder to us of the need for us to continue working tirelessly for the achievement of the ideals contained in the Freedom Charter.
It is only proper that we should associate Tata Sisulu with a project aimed at building a better life, and which will turn Kliptown into an economically vibrant hub and prime national and international monument of the struggle and ideals of the South African people.
Compatriots, Kliptown indeed has a significant place in our history, for the ten clauses of the Freedom Charter, which were adopted here, constitute the essence of the vision that our struggle sought to achieve.
This is a vision that was also first raised in the African Claims of 1943 document, which was drafted by a 28-person Committee which included AB Xuma, Pixley Seme, James Calata, Moses Kotane, R.G. Baloyi, Gana Makabeni, Z.K. Matthews, Govan Mbeki, Thomas Mapikela, S.M. Molema, J.S. Moroka, M.T. Moerane, Edwin Mofutsanyane, Don Mtimkulu, Selby Ngcobo, R.V.
Selope-Thema, Z.S. Mahabane and R.T. Bokwe.
When studying the Freedom Charter, we can again clearly see the link between this document and our highly progressive Constitution. It is truly remarkable how perceptive and farsighted our compatriots were in drawing up the Charter, which has been the basic guiding document of the ANC for 47 years. Even during the multiparty political negotiations with the apartheid government, the ANC was guided and informed by the Freedom Charter, which clearly outlined the basic freedoms that our people were seeking.
This vision guided the Liberation Movement and the people of this country through the many decades of struggle waged to secure our liberation from the apartheid yoke.
In the words of Prof ZK Matthews: "there were several wonderful things about the Congress of the People; the first is the fact that it was held at all."
As President Mbeki said in ANC Today of 21 June 2002, the Charter remains an essential part of the consciousness of our movement and people. (I quote)
"This movement and the masses it represents know no definition of our freedom other than the definition that has been sustained through nine decades of a difficult struggle," ( end quote).
The drawing up of the Charter had been preceded by the historic Defiance Campaign of 1952, under the leadership of the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. Over 8000 volunteers defied apartheid laws and went into prison.
The Defiance Campaign was the first form of mass campaign after the adoption of the 1949 Programme of Act!ssed draconian laws to suppress the campaign. Despite that, it was successful in achieving its aims of building and strengthening the ANC and transforming it into a mass-based militant organisation.
After the success of the Defiance Campaign, the question arose: where to from here? At the 1953 Eastern Cape Provincial Conference of the ANC, Cde Matthews proposed the drawing up of a Freedom Charter, to reflect the views of the people as to their demands and their vision for a new South Africa.
The proposal was subsequently endorsed by the national conference of the ANC, which decided to establish a National Congress of the People Committee, comprising various provincial branches, and various political and other people's organisations. Their task was to go to the people, ascertain from them their demands and their vision of freedom.
Throughout the length and breadth of South Africa, thousands of volunteers popularised the campaign and collected the demands of the people, which were then formulated into the Freedom Charter.
On June 26, 1955, at the historic gathering right here in Kliptown, over 3000 delegates from all over South Africa adopted the Freedom Charter.
It was and still is today regarded as the single largest gathering of representatives of the people from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds at that time, to state their demands, hopes and aspirations for the future.
It was indeed a memorable and proud moment in the history of our country, as the people said:
"We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
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 Clauses of the Charter correctly pointed out that:
The People Shall Govern,
All National Groups Shall Have Equal Rights,
The People Shall Share in the Country's Wealth,
The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work it,
All shall be Equal Before the Law,
All Shall Enjoy Equal Human Rights,
There shall be work and security,
The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be Opened,
There Shall be Houses, Security and Comfort,
There shall be Peace and Friendship"
At the same Congress of the People, the highest award, Isithwalandwe, was given out for the first time to then then President of the ANC, Chief A.J. Luthuli, Yusuf Dadoo and Father Trevor Huddlestone, in recognition of their contribution to the non-racial struggle for freedom. After the Congress, the regime arrested and charged 156 leaders of the Congress Alliance, and six-year trial was to follow, after which they were all acquitted.
Although we live in very different conditions to those of 1955, the visionary clauses of the Freedom Charter remain relevant to our tasks today.
They spur us on as we step up the fight against poverty, hunger, unemployment and disease. The Charter continues to drive our efforts for access to basic needs and ensuring sustainable development and economic growth, and various other objectives.
We must emphasise that because it embodies the dreams and hopes of our people, it will continue to inform our debates and discussions, policies, laws and resolutions. It is also a true embodiment of democracy in practical terms.
Our three-sphere system of governance is geared to ensure that it responds to the needs of the people, to ensure that we implement the clause of the Freedom Charter, which says "The People Shall Govern." It is also our responsibility to translate the Charter into collective action, by continuing to form broad-based partnerships with all our people in all sectors of society, and also to encourage the culture of voluntarism witnessed in 1955.
We are encouraged to see that this is already happening. Thousands of people have already come forward to do things for themselves and for others, in emulation of the voluntarist spirit of those who came to gather at the Congress of the People at Kliptown. This, in itself, is a fitting tribute to the historic Congress of the People that took place in 1955.
On this historic day it is also fitting that, as South Africans, we re-dedicate ourselves to the closing line of the preamble in the Freedom Charter, to spare nothing of our strength and courage, to speed up the process of building a better life for all.
We therefore call on all sections of our people, especially the youth, to become active participants in the processes of change in the country. When the drafters of the Freedom Charter stated that "the doors of learning culture shall be opened" they envisaged a country of highly skilled entrepreneurs, scientists, economists, engineers and others to lead South Africa and the continent on a path of unprecedented growth and development.
Honoured guests, on a sad note, as we commemorate this historic event, we must also remember four veterans of our struggle who passed away a few days ago.
These are:
We extend our heartfelt condolences to their families and friends, and we salute them for the contribution they made to the freedom we have attained.
Compatriots, in conclusion, let me borrow from Chief Luthuli in his book Let my People Go as he aptly captured the significance of the Freedom Charter and Kliptown when he said the Charter attempted, (I quote):
"to give flesh and blood meaning in the South African setting to such words as democracy, freedom, liberty. If the Freedom Charter is examined, it will be seen that freedom means the opening up of the opportunity to all South Africans to live full and abundant lives in terms of country, community and individual".
I Thank You