Since its accession to power, the ANC has strived incrementally to implement the dictates of its handbook on socialism – the Freedom Charter. The surprise of the Minerals Council at the latest amendments to mineral resources legislation (Business Report, October 9) is therefore a case of studied ignorance.
Drafted by Marxists in 1955 during the Cold War, the Freedom Charter is very clear on ownership of the country’s wealth: “Mineral wealth, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people.” The intended amendments to existing legislation on mining and minerals will “formalise artisanal small-scale mining and strengthen community consultation.” That wording lends expression to how access to mineral wealth at a basic level will be facilitated in keeping with the Freedom Charter.
That prospect has also drawn concern from AgriSA, which fears the intrusion of small-scale mining operations on high-potential agricultural zones, the absence of environmental impact assessments and disregard for environmental rehabilitation. But the Freedom Charter states that “all shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose.”
History shows that the implementation of communism follows the example of the frog in the gradually heated water. That process got underway with the passage of the National Water Act of 1998, which places water resources under state ownership. Since then, incrementally, legislation has been passed ensuring the permeation of Freedom Charter ideology widely. And this has mostly occurred without being noticed or resisted. The latest legislative intrusion underway concerns the regulation of churches.
As was the case with the constitution of the USSR, the glib ordinances of the Freedom Charter appear appealing. But therein lies their deception: the state is the proxy of the people. Nowhere is democracy mentioned because the intention is that all power shall reside with those (the party elite) who control the state and exercise authority ostensibly on the basis that it constitutes “the will of the people.”
Like the Shakespearean character Iago, the Freedom Charter is deceptive, which is why it should be recognized as the Servitude Charter and why studied ignorance is its ally.
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