South African Freedom
Charter Adopted at the Congress of the People,
Kliptown
26 June 1955
We, the People of South Africa, declare
for all our country and the world to know:
that South Africa belongs to all who
live in it, black and white, and that no government can
justly claim authority unless it is based on the will
of all the people;
that our people have been robbed of their birthright to
land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded
on injustice and inequality;
that our country will never be prosperous or free until
all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal
rights and opportunities;
that only a democratic state, based on the will of all
the people, can secure to all their birthright without
distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;
And therefore, we, the people of South
Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and
brothers adopt this Freedom Charter;
And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing
neither strength nor courage, until the democratic
changes here set out have been won.
The People Shall Govern!
Every man and woman shall have the right
to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies
which make laws;
All people shall be entitled to take part in the
administration of the country;
The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of
race, colour or sex;
All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils
and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of
self-government .
All National Groups Shall have Equal Rights!
There shall be equal status in the bodies
of state, in the courts and in the schools for all
national groups and races;
All people shall have equal right to use their own
languages, and to develop their own folk culture and
customs;
All national groups shall be protected by law against
insults to their race and national pride;
The preaching and practice of national, race or colour
discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable
crime;
All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.
The People Shall Share in the Country's
Wealth!
The national wealth of our country, the
heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the
people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and
monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership
of the people as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be controlled to
assist the wellbeing of the people;
All people shall have equal rights to trade where they
choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts
and professions.
The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work
It!
Restrictions of land ownership on a
racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided
amongst those who work it to banish famine and land
hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed,
tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the
tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work
on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they
choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced
labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.
All Shall be Equal Before the Law!
No-one shall be imprisoned, deported or
restricted without a fair trial; No-one shall be
condemned by the order of any Government official;
The courts shall be representative of all the people;
Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the
people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance;
The police force and army shall be open to all on an
equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of
the people;
All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or
belief shall be repealed.
All Shall Enjoy Equal Human Rights!
The law shall guarantee to all their
right to speak, to organise, to meet together, to
publish, to preach, to worship and to educate their
children;
The privacy of the house from police raids shall be
protected by law;
All shall be free to travel without restriction from
countryside to town, from province to province, and from
South Africa abroad;
Pass Laws, permits and all other laws restricting these
freedoms shall be abolished.
There Shall be Work and Security!
All who work shall be free to form trade
unions, to elect their officers and to make wage
agreements with their employers;
The state shall recognise the right and duty of all to
work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;
Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for
equal work;
There shall be a forty-hour working week, a national
minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all
workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working
mothers;
Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants
shall have the same rights as all others who work;
Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and
contract labour shall be abolished.
The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be
Opened!
The government shall discover, develop
and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our
cultural life;
All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to
all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with
other lands;
The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love
their people and their culture, to honour human
brotherhood, liberty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal
for all children; Higher education and technical training
shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and
scholarships awarded on the basis of merit;
Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a mass state education
plan;
Teachers shall have all the rights of other citizens;
The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and in
education shall be abolished.
There Shall be Houses, Security and Comfort!
All people shall have the right to live
where they choose, be decently housed, and to bring up
their families in comfort and security;
Unused housing space to be made available to the
people;
Rent and prices shall be lowered, food plentiful and
no-one shall go hungry;
A preventive health scheme shall be run by the state;
Free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided
for all, with special care for mothers and young
children;
Slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where
all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields,
creches and social centres;
The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be
cared for by the state;
Rest, leisure and recreation shall be the right of
all:
Fenced locations and ghettoes shall be abolished, and
laws which break up families shall be repealed.
There Shall be Peace and Friendship!
South Africa shall be a fully independent
state which respects the rights and sovereignty of all
nations;
South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the
settlement of all international disputes by negotiation -
not war;
Peace and friendship amongst all our people shall be
secured by upholding the equal rights, opportunities and
status of all;
The people of the protectorates Basutoland, Bechuanaland
and Swaziland shall be free to decide for themselves
their own future;
The right of all peoples of Africa to independence and
self-government shall be recognised, and shall be the
basis of close co-operation.
Let all people who love their people and their country
now say, as we say here:
THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE,
THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY
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