Former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe took over after the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki in the aftermath of the decision by the African National Congress (ANC) during a meeting of their National Executive Committee (NEC).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa
Kgalema Motlanthe
Courtesy of ANC Today
In the past we have witnessed the return of comrades who fled into exile as a result of repression and persecution by the apartheid forces. In recent times we have also observed the return of the remains of our fallen heroes and heroines from various countries.
In many ways the occasion is of special importance. First, it is the return home of one of the original copies of the Freedom Charter that was signed by the leaders of our people. It is also returning to a free and democratic South Africa, whose constitution was greatly influenced by the principles enshrined in it. I shall come back to this later. Secondly, it is returning on the eve of the commemoration of the 55th Anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown in June 1955.
In an article on the Freedom Charter titled “Freedom in our Lifetime” written by Nelson Mandela in Liberation, the newspaper of the Congress Movement, in June 1956:
“If this united front is strengthened and developed, the Freedom Charter will be transformed into a living instrument and we shall vanquish all opposition and win the South Africa of our dreams during our lifetime.”
Marking a decade towards the celebration of its centenary, the ANC in 2002 declared this period the “decade of the Freedom Charter”. This reaffirmed the Freedom Charter as the prime programme of the African National Congress and its progressive partners. It remains so today as reflected in the five top priorities of government.
The arrival of this original document bears testimony to the contemporary relevance of the values enshrined in it 55 years ago. As you will recall, the apartheid government began clamping down ever more heavily on human rights in the early 1950s. As Oliver Tambo put it:
“a heroic and epoch-making Congress of the People was convened in the face of fierce intimidation and victimisation by the racist Government and its police force.”
The progressive forces in the country began to tell each other - it is not enough to react and respond to each act of increasing repression, we need to declare for the world to see on what sort of alternative South Africa we want to build.
The African National Congress, the Congress of Democrats, the South African Council of Trade Unions (SACTU), the South African Indian Congress and the Coloured Peoples Organisation came together in what became know as the Congress Alliance and began to mobilise the people.
Cadres went into schools, shops, factories, bus stops, train stations, church halls, farms - everywhere that people gathered and asked them for their views; what they wanted to be contained in the Freedom Charter.
And despite the fact that the authorities tried their utmost to disrupt and undermine the campaign, the information came pouring in: a real chord had been struck in the soul of South Africa.
People scribbled their demands and requests on pieces of paper, on envelopes, on posters and these were taken to Kliptown. Here the demands were collated by a steering committee and they were read out line by line, clause by clause and endorsed by the throng of people who had come together from across the land - despite all the intimidation.
Many of their leaders were banned, or detained, or in hiding, but still the people came and gave voice to their demands even as the police closed in on them and scattered the crowd. Chief Albert Luthuli who was banned and could not attend wrote thus to the Congress:
“Why will this assembly be significant and unique? Its size, I hope, will make it unique. But above all its multi-racial nature and its noble objectives will make it unique because it will be the first time in the history of our multi-racial nation that its people from all walks of life will meet as equals, irrespective of race, colour and creed, to formulate a freedom charter for all people in the country.”
The Congress of the People was truly the result of mass participation and mass mobilisation. Its spirit animated the anti-apartheid movement for decades to come. In the 1980s the UDF explicitly revived the spirit and sentiments of the Freedom Charter and above all, the sentiments of the Freedom Charter underpin our own democratic constitution.
The Freedom Charter as adopted had to be written up as a single document and printed and circulated to all the workers. It also had to be formally ratified and endorsed by the individual formations - often in underground conditions.
It was printed up by Royal Printers in Fordsburg and I want to acknowledge the names of those brave printers (as given to us by Comrade Kathy Kathrada for sadly they are no longer with us): They were the Bukharia brothers - Yusuf and Mota - and also Godfrey Khuzwayo. These gallant men printed much of the revolutionary material and did it despite police raids and much intimidation.
The Charter was then debated within the various formations and once endorsed, the leaders signed it. There was never one great collective signing ceremony - that would have been far too dangerous. Instead the charter was circulated underground and taken to where each leader was to sign.
This explains the varying dates next to the signatures. For example Monty Naicker of the SA Indian Congress signed it in February 1960 and Chief Albert Luthuli only signed it in November 1960.
Most of the signed copies were seized by the police and some survived as evidence in the Treason Trial. The copy we have received was in the hands of Leon Levy who was first the Treasurer and then the President of SACTU. He was one of the Treason Trialists, but his copy of the Freedom Charter was saved from police hands.
In 1961, with the advent of the Republic and the ever-increasing state repression, Mr Levy gave it to a visiting British actor, Mr Guy Slater and asked him to smuggle it out of the country. When Leon Levy himself was driven into exile in Britain in 1963, Guy Slater returned it to him and the Freedom Charter hung shared Leon Levy’s exile with him until he returned to South Africa in the 1990s.
It is greatly distressing when such important items of South Africa’s heritage are threatened with sale abroad, which is another form of exile. In this regard I want to express our thanks as government and the people of South Africa to Lord Renwick, the former British Higher Commissioner to South Africa and a great friend of our country, to Adrian Gardiner, the Mantis Group and to the Lonmin Group. Their generous intervention and support enabled the National Archives through the good offices of Mr Nic Wolpe and the Liliesleaf Trust to prevent this precious object from going on auction in London and for ensuring its return to the people of South Africa.
I gladly accept the Freedom Charter on behalf of the government and people of South Africa. I wish to ask my colleague the Minister of Arts and Culture, to ensure that it will be kept securely in the National Archives, where it belongs, and also that a programme should be arranged to ensure that it can be seen and appreciated by all South Africans in all parts of our country.
Finally, in less than 34 days from today we will be hosting the greatest sports spectacle, the FIFA 2010 World Cup, and also receive many participating nations and guests, once more in the spirit of the Freedom Charter let there be peace and friendship among all our nations.
Amandla!
(Kgalema Motlanthe is the Deputy President of the ANC and of the Republic of South Africa. This is an edited extract of his address on the occasion of the handover of the Freedom Charter to the government of the Republic of South Africa.)
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