We have failed to realise the ideals of Freedom Charter
One of the loftiest ideas in the Freedom Charter is that the people shall share in the country’s wealth! After 23 years of liberation, it is fair to conclude that not much sharing has happened. What has happened in terms of economic liberation has made a total mockery of the Freedom Charter.
The Reconstruction and Development Programme was the first economic policy the ANC implemented after the 1994 elections. It was birthed on the principles of the Freedom Charter, aiming at ensuring that wealth and land is shared; that there is housing, security and comfort.
While the intentions were good, the government failed to fully comprehend the complexity of the economic situation. Instead of turning townships from dormitories for cheap labour into viable economic hubs, the government developed more dormitories, of even poorer quality than those of the apartheid government.
The Reconstruction and Development Programme championed projects to build houses and to provide electricity and clean water to poor communities. Between 1994 and the start of 2001, more than 1.1-million cheap houses eligible for government subsidies had been built.
Former minister of water affairs Kader Asmal stated in 2001 that since he had taken office more than 2.5-million people had been given access to fresh, safe water.
Between 1994 and May 2000, about 1.75-million homes were connected to the national grid. Between April 1994 and the end of 1998, about 500 new clinics gave an additional 5-million people access to healthcare.
ANC leaders were eager to deliver to the electorate, but didn’t quite have a plan of how the nation would be built. There was no integrated plan for developing black communities beyond providing dwellings for cheap labour. For example, concerns over climate change had already been raised and the first COP conference was held in 1995. Instead of rethinking new possibilities of lighting up townships, the government decided to plug the whole country into the national grid. We could have explored other options and created black-owned providers of services to ensure that as we respond to a need, we also ensure wealth is redistributed.
Closely linked to this promise was a promise of jobs for all; as the Freedom Charter says, there shall be work and security! Unemployment remains high, and many economic migrants from other African nations have fled here. Before we could create conditions for South Africans to work and enjoy security, more than 5-million non-South Africans arrived seeking greener opportunities.
The focus has been on plugging people into the existing economic structure and, given the history of Bantu education, SA has people who are unemployable.
This has resulted in violence and xenophobic tensions. While the ANC was eager to build relationships with the rest of the continent, it could not compromise on the welfare of South Africans.
The overall assessment of how we have met the ideals our forefathers had in mind when they adopted this seminal document is failure. There appears to be an outright failure to bring to life the spirit of the Freedom Charter.
The recent fight over the Mining Charter is but one example. It is clear from those who drafted it that there has been a resistance to change by white-owned business and they are desperate to reverse decades of inaction over the transformation of the economy overnight. The mining industry has found another technicality to help it hang on to the inertia of the 23 years since the introduction of the first Mining Charter.
These extreme positions will not result in sustainable development, but in utter chaos unless a solution is found fast to help us understand what our founding fathers meant when they said the people shall share in the country’s wealth.
THE GOVERNMENT FAILED TO FULLY COMPREHEND THE COMPLEXITY OF THE ECONOMIC SITUATION