The apartheid system was officially established in the late 1940s as the legal institutionalization of the complete expropriation by the white-minority ruling class and its government of the African people of South Africa, who form the majority of the population. White-minority rule was maintained through a system of state control over every aspect of the labor and life of the Black majority, which includes Africans, Coloureds, and Indians.

Habla Nelson Mandela includes testimony by Mandela, the ANC’s central leader, at trials in 1962 and 1964 that ended with his being sentenced to life imprisonment for his leadership of the anti-apartheid struggle. The growing liberation movement forced his release in 1990. Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president after the country’s first nonracial election in 1994. Copyright © 1986 Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
 

• that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people;
• that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty, and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;
• that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities;
• that only a democratic state, based on the will of the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of color, race, sex, or belief;

And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, Black and white together—equals, countrymen, and brothers—adopt this Freedom Charter. And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing nothing of our strength and courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.  
 
The people shall govern!
Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws.

All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country.

The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, color, or sex.

All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils, and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government.  
 
All national groups shall have equal rights!
There shall be equal status in the bodies of state, in the courts, and in the schools for all national groups and races;

All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride;

All people shall have equal rights to use their own language and to develop their own folk culture and customs;

The preaching and practice of national, race, or color discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable crime;

All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.  
 
The people shall share in the country’s wealth!
The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people;

The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks, and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;

All other industries and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people;

All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture, and to enter all trades, crafts, and professions.  
 
The land shall be shared among those who work it!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land redivided amongst those who work it, to banish famine and land hunger;

The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors, and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;

Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;

All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;

People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labor and farm prisons shall be abolished.  
 
All shall be equal before the law!
No one shall be imprisoned, deported, or restricted without a fair trial;

No one shall be condemned by the order of any government official;

The courts shall be representative of all the people;

Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance;

The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people;

All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, color, or belief shall be repealed.  
 
 
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