Freedom Charter lies in ruins in democratic South Africa

IN his address at the 1993 ANC national conference, Pallo Jordan said: “The ANC is not the master of the people. It is the servant of the people.”

- KIM HELLER

Today, the portraiture of the ANC as a devoted and dutiful servant to its citizenry has all but collapsed. The party of the people has abandoned its scripture.

ANC leaders rule over South Africa as if they are remote landlords. Many avoid ordinary citizens as much as possible and visit poor communities in fancy motorcades when there is a calling to collect electoral votes.

Seventy years ago, in the dark days of apartheid, thousands of ordinary citizens gathered in Kliptown, Soweto, to adopt the Freedom Charter, a blueprint for a democratic and just South Africa. The ominous presence of armed policemen and the ever-present fear of political intimidation failed to subdue the revolutionary ring of “The People Shall Govern!” or the heady exuberance of grassroots activism.

The Freedom Charter was not an exclusive enclave or quick talk shop. It was not a political prank or political theatre, but the hard work of political purpose, collaboration, and community mobilisation.

The Freedom Charter was the historical culmination of progressive organisations, leaders, and individuals united in a country-wide endeavour to re-imagine and co-author a better future.

ANC leader Walter Sisulu described the Freedom Charter as the soul of the struggle for liberation and a symbol of the people’s will, which cannot be muted. In 1990, South Africa’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, said: “The Charter is more than just a call to action. It is the foundation of our democratic Constitution.” Although the principles of the Charter have been inscribed into the Constitution of democratic South Africa, these ideals have been neglected, if not vandalised.