EFF statement on Freedom Day

27 April 2018

The EFF marks the 24 Anniversary of the so-called Freedom Day. We reject the narrative that in 1994 black South Africans attained freedom simply because they were included in the voting processes in South Africa. 

The fundamental point of the struggle for freedom was always about the return of the land. This is the reason the liberation movement was formed following the defeat of our people in the colonial wars of land dispossession. 

There is therefore no freedom, politically and economically, without the land. The indignity suffered by black people for over centuries of white minority rule has to do with land dispossession. The entire colonial and apartheid systems were about maintaining black people in a permanent state of landlessness and land hunger so that they always live on their knees bagging existence from white people. 

Through pass laws, forced removals, the creation of townships and homelands the apartheid government was denying black people the dignity of access to the land.  

The land is the alpha and omega of freedom, therefore until we have the land, we remain in the indignity of being foreigners in the country of our birth. This means voting is useless and it will always be meaningless if we do not have the land. All freedom must be founded on the land because human rights begin and end with the land: Without the land, there is no dignity, and there is no dignity without the land. 

We, therefore, call on land expropriation without compensation for equal redistribution. The South African constitution must be amended to allow this process to take place peacefully and in adherence to the rule of law.  

The EFF reiterates that Freedom Day will only be the day our people have land so as to truly have the ability to call this country their home.

We call upon our people to begin to use their votes to transform the economic conditions with the aim of total economic emancipation. It is time to vote for a government that will ensure land expropriation without compensation, nationalization of mines and banks, a massive state-led industrialization, free quality healthcare, housing, and sanitation. This is because political freedom without economic freedom is meaningless. 

In this anniversary of so-called Freedom Day, we further call on the intensification of the struggle against patriarchy, misogyny and sexism. We call on society to fight against rape and violence against women, in particular, the girl child. 

There is no economic or political freedom until women enjoy total emancipation from patriarchal violence and rape. On this day, we renew our vow to fight against the male and masculine driven war on women and their bodies.

Women too must be allowed to own their country through direct ownership of the land. They have to live on this land without any fear of patriarchal violence, rape and masculine domination. 

Finally, we call on the South African government to give the incarcerated Fees Must Fall activists amnesty. We also call on all universities to grant the expelled Fees Must Fall activists amnesty, including the Rhodes University anti-rape activists who were expelled for protests. All these activists must be freed, re-integrated back into society and universities so they can complete their studies and contribute to the country’s development. 

It is not yet Uhuru!

It is not yet Uhuru!

Issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 27 April 2018