Number 11, June-July 2001
- Celebrating the implementation of the Freedom Charter - Jeff Radebe
- The bricks and mortar of a better life for all
- The people shall share in the country's wealth - Alec Erwin
- The doors of learning and culture shall be opened - Kader Asmal
- The key to building a winning nation
- A deeply spiritual document - Cedric Mayson
- Charterists: Youth identity in the 80s - Sandile Dikeni
- I was there at the Congress of the People
- A movement for the transformation of gender relations - Thenjiwe Mtintso
- Good governance needs an effective Parliament - Firoz Cachalia
- Vietnam Congress - Mandla Nkomfe and Smiso Nkwanyana
- Zimbabwe and South Africa: Anatomy of a crisis revisited - Moeletsi Mbeki
- Much ado about Zimbabwe - Z. Pallo Jordan
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The vision of the Freedom Charter for decades guided struggles against apartheid colonialism and forms the basis of our programme to transform South Africa into a non-racial, non-sexist, united democracy.
The main clauses of the Charter inspired and guided struggles at all levels and among all sectors - youth, students, the landless, workers, the homeless, unemployed, cultural workers and intellectuals. The consultative approach followed in the collection of the demands informed our people-driven and people-centred approach to change.
Forty-six years later, this vision of the Freedom Charter remains the common programme of the Tripartite Alliance. The Charter recognizes the symbiotic link between national oppression and South African capitalism. In its vision and programme for a national democracy, it therefore recognizes the centrality of the deracialisation of society, including the economy, land ownership, settlement patterns, the fundamental task of uplifting the conditions of the poor and providing opportunities for blacks and women in economic, social, educational, cultural and other spheres.
How we go about implementing this vision, is a matter which the Alliance is consistently seized with in our individual and joint programmes. The terrain in which we implement this vision has become much more complex. The Alliance since 1994 continues to grapple with the transformation challenges set out in the Freedom Charter: how do we ensure that people share in the country's wealth and the land or have houses security, work and comfort or how do we open the doors of learning and cultureto all?
The Alliance will meet in one of its annual summits in August this year, and will review progress and discuss the concrete issues of speeding up change to meet the vision of the Charter. These issues include accelerto ensure ating programmes against poverty, hunger and unemployment, health for all, meeting basic needs, redistribution and growth, developing human resources, safety and security and transforming the state as set out in the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
The discussion papers in this edition of Umrabulo are part of the preparations and debates towards this summit. Indeed, these are the issues that as a society we must pledge to ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes set out in the Freedom Charter have been won.
The countrywide realignment of ANC branches, which started at the beginning of this year, will see another stage of revolutionizing the ANC. The objective is to reinforce and strengthen the branches of the ANC as the primary units of the movement, through which members determine policies and programmes of the ANC.
The more than 3000 new ward-based branches are being build to become vanguards for change of their communities, driving local community development, the integration of communities and quality local democracy and participation. The new ward-based branches will ensure accountability of councilors and information flow between councils and communities. They must become stronger vehicles for community and sectoral mobilization, mass communication and the involvement of ANC members in the process of transformation at all levels.
For this to be effected, it will require the rejuvenation of political and social activism among ANC and Alliance members, in the spirit of service to the people and developing New Cadres. It will require building an organisational culture that suits the new conditions, on the firm foundations of our traditions and values that have preserved the ANC for nearly ninety years. Among these is the approach to electing leadership, which is discussed in the paper 'Through the eye of a needle' - how do we elect the best cadres that will lead the process of transformation. These are among the tasks that will enable us to implement the vision of the Freedom Charter.
Umrabulo Editorial Collective
The Political Education and Training Unit wishes to acknowledge the following people for their contribution to this edition:
Umrabulo Editorial Collective: Naph Manana, Joel Netshitenzhe, Pallo
Jordan, Jeremy Cronin, Mandla Nkomfe and Fébé Potgieter.
Layout and Design: Donovan Cloete, ANC Communications Unit
Proofing and Editing: Diana Cumberledge
Logo: Creativity
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