The congress of the people and freedom charter

The congress of the people – where the freedom charter was formally approved by several thousand delegates – was held over the weekend of 25–26 June 1955 in an open field in Kliptown, south of Johannesburg. It was a colourful and dramatic affair. For Ellen Lambert the CoP was seen as “the day of liberation like Martin Luther’s meeting where he gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech. The official report of the National action council that coordinated the entire campaign stated that there were 2 844 delegates representing all the most important urban centres, with approximately 300 delegates from Natal, 250 from the Eastern and Western Cape, 50 from the OFS and the rest came from the Transvaal, mainly from Johannesburg. The CoP opened under the chairmanship of Dr W Conco with a prayer by Reverend Gawe and a speech delivered on behalf of Chief Albert Luthuli, who could not attend because of his banning order. This was followed by the presentation of the Isitwalandwe – an honour of a bird feather conferred on distinguished sons of the Xhosa people – to Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr Yusuf Dadoo and Father Trevor Huddleston “in recognition of their work to build a better life in our country, founded upon democracy and equality”. After this each clause of the Freedom Charter was motivated by various speakers as listed below; limited discussion and comments were elicited from the delegates, and the clause was adopted by a show of hands: Preamble of the Freedom Charter – Alfred Hutchinson; The people shall govern – NT Naicker; All national groups shall have equal rights – Dr Letele; The people shall share in the country’s wealth – Ben Turok; The land shall be shared amongst those who work it – TE Tshunungwa; All shall be equal before the law – Dr A Sader; All shall enjoy equal human rights – Sonya Bunting; There shall be work and security – Leslie Masina; The doors of learning and culture shall be opened – Es’kia Mphahlele.