EFF STATEMENT ON THE 63RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE FREEDOM CHARTER

Tuesday, 26 June, 2018

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) marks the 63rd anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955. This is a day that remains important to remind ourselves of its significance, as our people remain dispossessed and denied of economic freedom.

The EFF has always used the Freedom Charter as a guiding document which finds relevance in the struggle for Economic Freedom today. We call on South Africans to note as Parliament embarks on the process of public hearings to determine whether or not to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to Expropriate Land Without Compensation, it was also by going to the people and talking to them, that the Freedom Charter was drafted.

On the 26th of June 1955 South African people made it clear that, "The People Shall Share in the Country's Wealth", "The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It", and "All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose." Our demand for Section 25 of the constitution is informed by what our people said then, and what our people are saying now.

The ANC has abandoned the Freedom Charter and are silencing the people who were a part of drafting this important document of our history. Years after our first democratic elections the land and wealth of our country remain in the hands of the minority, with no substantive change in comparison to when the freedom charter was first adopted 63 years ago.

Our people continue to be prevented from occupying the land. The ongoing violence that women face at the hands of men and from their exclusion in the economy, should remind us that Economic Freedom can never be achieved without economic freedom for women, and that when we redistribute the land, it is black women who must be prioritised.

As we fight for the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution for Expropriation of Land Without Compensation, and as we continue with the broader struggle for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime, we do so informed by the principles of the Freedom Charter. The EFF remains inspired by the generation who drafted the Freedom Charter, we pick-up from where those before us left off in the struggle for our land, and the realisation of Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 26 June 2018