Photo credit: Unsplash.
The celebration to mark the 65th anniversary of the Freedom Charter this year were held virtually with President Ramaphosa the keynote speaker. The president commended those who were at the forefront of the Freedom Charter as it paved a way for the current democratic country.
On Sunday 26 June 1955, the Congress of the People gathered in Kliptown, Soweto and adopted the Freedom Charter.
In 1955, the ANC sent out 50,000 volunteers into townships and the countryside to collect “freedom demands” from the people of South Africa. This system was designed to give all South Africans equal rights.
Demands such as “land to be given to all landless people, living wages and shorter hours of work, free and compulsory education, irrespective of colour, race or nationality,” were synthesized into the final document by ANC leaders.
The document is notable for its demand for and commitment to a non-racial South Africa.