The Freedom Charter Is A Rhetorical Document By Dr Motsoko Pheko You would think that 59 years after the launch of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown - Soweto, one would find a township that exemplifies a model of excellence in development terms. One would have thought that Kliptown would be a town that has enjoyed the benefits of all the declarations made in the Freedom Charter. The Charter has failed to deliver to the African people because the proponents of the Charter itself no longer believe in the Freedom Charter. They have shifted so far away into the enclave of capitalism and neo-liberal policies it is almost comical that the Charter would be dusted off for a celebration when it has done little to influence the policy decision and direction that the ruling party has taken. Rather than a celebration, perhaps a commemoration of 50 years of the demise of the Charter would be more appropriate. Today, Kliptown like the Freedom Charter stands out as symbol of rhetoric, broken promises, deepening poverty, social and economic exclusion, the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, lack of service delivery and growing resistance and protest to the GEAR (growth, employment and redistribution policy). GEAR is the most violent model of development that contradicts the Freedom Charter with all its imperfections and false premise that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. Celebrating 59 years of the Charter is a fraudulent exercise that is an anti-climax for the millions who served, suffered and sacrificed in the liberation struggle. The foundation for this anti-climax is in the austere and conservative economic policies of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy (GEAR). This has reduced the role of the state as a social provider of basic services to a spectator serving the interests of the rich in the countrys economy. This is in direct contradiction to the role of the state in the Freedom Charter which espouses for one that is democratic in nature based on the will of the people and can secure specific gains for the African people. 50 years later the Charter represents rhetoric, complex ambivalence and lack of political vision to deliver dignity to the African people. Dignity signifies access to basic public services like water, healthcare and housing. Dignity means equitable redistribution of land. Dignity upholds the right of millions of people to work. Dignity is an environment that enables the African people to not only share, but also create the wealth of our country. Dignity is free education. The doors of learning are not opened but closed to those who cannot afford to pay school fees from primary to tertiary levels of education. The Charter has left many bereft of a shared sense of national purpose with broken promises of freedom from poverty and despair. Rampant private economic corruption and profiteering have heightened social and economic inequalities and opened up new avenues of crime and violence. The Freedom Charter has failed to stop the silent take-over of public institutions such as healthcare, water, land, electricity, telecommunications and the services industry as a whole by the private sector and multinational corporations leaving over 10 million since 1994 to experience the indignity of water cut-offs. The same trend is emerging with electricity. Over 2 million families have been evicted from their homes because they cannot pay their utility bills. Unemployment is over 41%. African workers are still locked inside bakeries and factories at night under slave working conditions and wages, many burning inside with no way out. It is estimated that over 10 million people live in squatter camps without access to water, electricity, healthcare facilities and medical insurances. There are plans to upgrade these slums. This is in opposition to the Freedom Charter, which makes promises to demolish slums, provide free medical care and provide security and comfort for all people. The proponents of the Freedom Charter must have acquired amnesia when they said there shall be work and security, and that the people shall share in the countrys wealth. According to a World Bank Report South Africa has one of the worst records in terms of social indicators. The highest unemployment rate is among Africans. The African rural areas experience up to 75% poverty. Women are poorer by almost 50% than men. South Africa is the most unequal society in the world followed by Brazil. In this country the lowest households representing 53% of the population consume only 10% of the wealth while the top 10% of households, which account for 5 - 8% of the population consume 40% of the wealth in this country. The Charter in reality and practice has become an emblem dusted off to evoke nostalgia for an era where people believed in the possibility of socialism, nationalisation and peoples governance. The new mantra of those who purport to promote the Charter is globalisation, privatisation and global governance. These are concepts far removed from the right to work, people governing and people sharing the wealth of the country. This issue of Land in South Africa is emerging as one of the most defining political and development issues of the day. At the end of 2001, less than 2% of land has changed hands from white to black through the land reform programme. Of the 68,878 land restitution claims received, only 12,678 had been settled. They benefited less than 40,000 predominantly urban households. More than 40% have received money instead of land. This is because in this country land has a history of being mal-distributed along racial lines. The Charter promises to end race based land ownership. Land is one of the most contentious issues because it defines and exposes the property relations of this country. It is apparent that those who own the means of production rule the economy and influence the politics of our time. The struggle for access to land is about challenging the historical dispossession and segregation in South Africa which has contributed, to a violation of human rights, dignity and deep inequalities. 50 Years after the Freedom Charter was launched and declared that the land shall be shared among those who work it, farm workers, the people who work the land are dispossessed of land and work under the most exploitative conditions of work in this country and are still savaged by the white masters dogs. The question of land redistribution is not just about rights. It is fundamentally about wealth and socio-economic development. It is ensuring 70% of the poor still concentrated in the rural areas have their economic inequalities redressed. The uneven, unequal distribution of rural incomes in South Africa is a direct consequence of land ownership patters. 60,000 large-scale white commercial farmers dominate the agricultural sector in this country As a result of their bulk access of the nations natural resources not just land, but water, minerals, 13 million people live in the marginal areas of the country and about seven million workers and tenants living on these farms. The Charter has not broken the complex power relation on wealth and land in this country. This has created a divide of those privileged to own land and those destined to work on this land. The unequal access to land by those who work the land remains a glaring and disturbing factor in the political economy of this country. The possibility of generating plans and public policies aimed a tackling poverty, social exclusion and upholding the equal right, opportunities and status of all is now obfuscated by criminalising protest against growing political and economic hegemony and using force to trample upon legitimate resistance in communities across the country., It is obvious everywhere that there is a new and deafening realization hat resonates in the lived experiences of the African people, that South Africa does not belong to all who live in it. The freedom Charter is indeed the Freedom Cheater.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 11:49:59 +0000
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