'Freedom Charter led the way'
2005-06-24 21:58
Cape Town - The loyalty of the overwhelming majority of South Africans to the Freedom Charter's vision has made the country what it is today, which many have described as a miracle, said President Thabo Mbeki on Friday.
"The determination made by the Freedom Charter, that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, now also reflected in our constitution, decisively repudiated the dismal future for our country that those who had superior weapons had sought to impose," he said.
Writing in the African National Congress's online publication, ANC Today, Mbeki said the Congress of the People at Kliptown in 1955 gave an opportunity to all South Africans, black and white, to decide together what needed to be done to end the conflict first heralded by the events at Mossel Bay in 1488 with the arrival of a Portuguese fleet under the command of Bartolomeu Dias.
What defined the outcome of the Congress of the People was the support of the masses for the vision for South Africa explained by ANC then-president Albert Luthuli as "a true partnership of all communities making up its multiracial nature".
Will strive to work together
"This month, all our people will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the adoption of this one basic political statement of our goals to which all genuinely democratic and patriotic forces of South Africa adhere.
"We will participate in these celebrations, inspired that the perspective projected by that basic political statement now informs our constitutional order and defines the relations among our diverse people.
"As we engage in these celebrations, we will also reaffirm that the victory of the perspective advanced by the Freedom Charter means there will never again be the kind of conflict exemplified by the skirmish at Mossel Bay in 1488.
"Instead, our people will continue to strive to work together in the true partnership of which Chief Luthuli spoke, together to eradicate the legacy of centuries of colonialism and apartheid and build a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it, united in their diversity," said Mbeki.
- SAPA