Freedom Charter

It's as if South Africa.

in 1995 emerged into this new version with a clean slate and we don't we have a slate that goes back to 1652 at least and under some accounts earlier than that and and a lot of things that have happened between 1652 and 1994 1995 made it very difficult for the ANC to fulfill of course the constitutional obligations and give honor to the Freedom Charter.

And they did, as you point out in one chapter, they did a lot of very, very good things for 10 years or so.

And then they started to contribute actively to the further demise of all aspects of South African society.

So it's fairly new, but I think it represents a very historical movement in South Africa, among one of the first that was created by Mahatma Gandhi.

but more importantly um i think it wants to deal with current issues and to to align the congress values which are which has been aligned with the freedom charter and with the constitution of south africa currently so there are many issues like for example the xenophobic violence but there are other issues of um the prospect of a breakdown society through you know, the political situation in our country through the various issues we have with the United States.

And there seems to be a very serious breakdown.

And what is required is a form of leadership that's nonpartisan political.

But we are bringing that voice, uh, much more stronger into the local councils to prioritize their programs, to build people's power where the people live, to make sure that we create the right to work.

Resuscitate that, a forgotten aspect of the people's wishes in the Freedom Charter.

We are rebuilding that to make sure that people have got access to basic services: water, electricity, access to roads.

He further said the Communist Party will be open to forming coalitions with like-minded parties.

And let me firstly say that that approach is an approach deeply rooted in the tradition of the ANC as well.

When the Freedom Charter, upon which the Constitution of the Republic is based, when the Freedom Charter was formulated, it was based on consultation, leaders being rooted in communities.

So even our manifesto, our policies based on interactions with the public, oversight even.

I mean, what you've seen, the work that we try to do, whether it's in the legislature or outside, it's always about ensuring that the public who are affected, whether it's in the form of NGOs or activists on the ground, are actually the ones informing the manner in which we hold government accountable here, or draft policies, or that's important.

But we are different because the Communist Party stands for a different vision of the future.

We still support the Freedom Charter and all the aims that the ANC has stood for and we have been standing for since the 1940s.

When we actually fought elections in 1948, there were communists elected to the local government in Cape Town, to the province.

So it's not the first time we stand for elections, but as you correctly said, since 94.

We swapped roles afterwards.

Uh, and that became like the first statement on paper, not just the Freedom Charter, not the Bills of Rights ANC had in 1923 and 1944, uh, imagining a new democratic South Africa.

It was the most fabulous medicine.

Uh, I just felt so elated, and Carter felt so elated and, and, and Louise so elated.

So it was the classic mistake.

Amongst those attending the Lily's Leaf meeting was Lionel Rusty Bernstein, a communist architect who had helped draft the resistance movement's manifesto, the Freedom Charter.

Bernstein wanted to renew his objections to the plan before we'd even started discussing it.

The geese started cackling, rather like ancient Rome, the geese give the game away.

sentence?

Yeah.

I don't know who wrote it up here, the Freedom Charter, but it was there in 1963, 64, when we were on trial.

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