Cape Town - The Freedom Charter helped secure equality in South, African National Congress veteran Margaret Makuzeni said on Friday.
“The Freedom Charter has given us our equal rights. Before I couldn’t even go to school in Cape Town,” said Makuzeni.
Makuzeni was part of a group of veterans who came out in their numbers in Langa, Cape Town to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the party’s founding document, the Freedom Charter.
Makuzeni recalled life in Langa during Apartheid.
“I lived in Langa from Sub A [Grade 1] until standard six [Grade 8] before we were forced to move to the Transkei,” she said.
Makuzeni said her parents would be in and out of jail for simply “asking for their freedom”.
Once she obtained her Grade 11 certificate, Makuzeni returned to Cape Town.
“But I could only move around Cape Town because they wrote ‘interpreter’ on my dompas,” she said.
Now, said Makuzeni, she could move freely around Cape Town which she credited to the existence of the Freedom Charter and the ANC.
Joining the veterans in celebration was the outgoing provincial executive committee, including Secretary Songezo Mjongile.
“This day is for the veterans,” he said.
Mjongile, who was tipped for re-election at the weekend’s provincial conference in Bellville, was not fazed by the Freedom Charter celebrations elsewhere in the country by the Economic Freedom Fighters. “It belongs to the people,” he said.
“If another party has it as their founding document, then I am not going to stop them from celebrating.”
The celebrations also kicked off the provincial conference which would continue until Sunday.
ANA