Freedom Charter is a political tool

The Freedom Charter is being used to discredit and challenge the ANC-led government, writes Thabani Khumalo.

The Freedom Charter is by far the most valuable, indispensable and comprehensive dossier the mass democratic and progressive movement produced as a blueprint for the liberation struggle and to guide democracy and development in the post-apartheid era.

In its 60th anniversary, ANC veteran Professor Ben Turok says the Freedom Charter remains one of the policy documents adopted by the ANC that has not been amended since its inception.

“I have been to all ANC policy conferences since freedom and one of the things that has interested me is that in all these conferences the Freedom Charter has always been reaffirmed in its original form; it has never been amended. That is quite remarkable for a document so old to endure the current South African political turbulence without any amendments. I find that quite pleasing and remarkable.”

I think Turok missed the point. The current political turbulence in the country suggests that some sections of the charter have proved to be pure “political rhetoric” or “poetic language” whose relevance ended with the struggle era.

The question is – is the Freedom Charter still relevant to the global challenges of today? Since the adoption of the Charter by Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955, there have been substantial changes in the political, economic, social and environmental spaces.

The upholders of the Freedom Charter must understand that no constitution, no policy document and no programme of action are immutable for all time.

Even the most seemingly sacred or absolute principles or policies should be held constantly under review, endorsed if found still to be correct, altered or scrapped if found to be out of date.

Former ANC president and co-chair of the Congress of the People, Chief Albert Luthuli, wrote in his book Let my people go (p142), that the Charter attempted to give a flesh and blood meaning, in the South African setting, to such words as democracy, freedom and liberty. However, he warned: “The Freedom Charter is open to criticism. It is by no means a perfect document.”

The same sentiments were expressed by Nelson Mandela that the Charter “like other enduring political documents was a mixture of practical goals and poetic language”.

This is therefore an opportune time to discuss the Freedom Charter to check whether it is still relevant to the conditions of today.

When Jacob Zuma delivered his maiden anniversary statement as ANC president in 2008, he recalled a 2002 party decision that the ideals espoused in the Freedom Charter would be realised in the decade preceding the party’s centenary.

This milestone has come and gone and the ANC continues to grapple with the challenges of delivering to the ideals of the Charter that the people shall share in the country’s wealth, regain the ownership of their ancestors’ land and have free education for all. Hence, the ANC is criticised for falling short on some ideals of the Freedom Charter.

When democracy was realised in 1994, the ANC and its allies should have re-evaluated, updated, adapted and transformed the Freedom Charter from its “liberation and revolutionary tones” into an official government policy document that is in line with a democratic constitution and 21st century challenges.

The Charter has now turned into a political tool to discredit and challenge the ANC-led government. Though the ANC-led democratic government has delivered remarkably on some of the tenets of the Freedom Charter, three critical clauses – namely the economy, land and free education – have turned into the biggest threats to the ANC’s political survival and its third decade of rule.

When launching the Congress of the People in 2009, Mosiuoa Lekota blamed the ANC for having deviated from the Charter’s provisions and aspirations. And the result was a drop in ANC support by 2% in the 2009 elections.

In 2013, Julius Malema formed the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to pursue radical economic changes as defined by the Freedom Charter.

Again the ANC majority in the 2014 elections was reduced by 4%. Amid the growing levels of service delivery and labour protests, next year, the ANC will face the EFF for the first time in local polls, with its rivals already promising to fulfil the Charter’s clauses of economic freedom, and basic services, houses, security and comfort for all.

The explosion of labour unrest at the Marikana platinum mines and Western Cape wine areas, and widespread labour action accompanied by huge wage demands by unions are indications that people’s Freedom Charter expectation of wealth sharing remains a distant dream. This has resulted in the mushrooming of smaller unions which have expressed no confidence in the ANC and Cosatu.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has vowed to form a workers party that will pursue the ideals of the Charter radically. Considering the size and influence of Numsa, it is expected that the ANC is likely to experience another drop in its majority in the local government elections next year.

Again the crux of Numsa’s criticism of the ANC is that its adoption of the National Development Programme as the country’s official government policy is an official abandonment of the Freedom Charter.

And recently, the “FeesMustFall” protest by university students raised questions about the ANC’s commitment to the Freedom Charter’s dream of free education.

With business sitting on vast cash reserves, estimated at R1 trillion because of the government’s confidence crisis, the government cannot afford free education.

Unfortunately, this is interpreted by upholders of the Freedom Charter as another ANC shift from the Charter’s principle. Again, this is likely to impact negatively on the ANC’s quest for youth support.

South Africans celebrate the ideals enshrined in the Freedom Charter, not because it is an all-time document, but because it is a revolutionary and unitary guide to a life free of misery, oppression and exploitation that the majority desired to live in back in 1955 – and still do.

The Charter needs to be updated to protect its legacy and prolong its influence within the dynamic and ever-changing world. Perhaps it is time the ANC, as it did in Kliptown, meets to discuss and adapt the Freedom Charter principles to the country’s democratic constitutional challenges and challenges of the 21st century.

If it does not, the Charter will be exploited by political vampires who promise desperate citizens irrational, irrelevant, unrealistic and unreasonable solutions. For now, the big question is – can the Freedom Charter end the ANC’s political dominance? It remains to be seen.

*Khumalo is political and communication strategist with the Durban-based Think Tank Marketing Services. He writes in his personal capacity.

**The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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