'Interpreting the Freedom Charter today, we need to take into account ... realities'
1992 1992-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →
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Following are excerpts from an interview with Joel Netshitenzhe, a member of the national executive committee of the African National Congress and editor of Mayibuye, the ANC journal. The interview was given to Socialist Action Co-editor Michael Schreiber on June 10, 1992, at "Shell House," the national headquarters of the ANC in Johannesburg.
Socialist Action: The CODESA negotiations have been deadlocked for some time now. What is the next step forward?
Joel Netshitenzhe: Our orientation is that we don't want apartheid to exist for a day longer. We are going back to our people to use their position in industry, their position as workers, to pressurize the regime to accept a transition to democracy. This is the program of mass action that has been worked out.
SA: Is the mass action campaign, then, seen solely as a means to apply pressure toward restarting the negotiations?
JN: Mass action has always been part of our activity as the democratic movement. For all kinds of crises that people have-relating to working conditions, to electricity, to housing, and so forth. But in this instance, there are certain basic political demands that we have. We believe that an interim government order to achieve their demands. Given the changing political atmosphere during the last two years, those actions of the people will be peaceful. And therefore, there is no need for security forces to intervene in problems that need to be resolved in a political manner.
In so far as the state of emergency is concerned, it was discussed quite between principle as it would want to see ultimately realized—and the kind of, from time to time, tactical detours a body needs to consider in order to reach that final goal.
For instance, if everything were to go according to plan—would it mean that the day on which the ANC becomes the goverment all our principles would be compensation to the owners, would you have sufficient resources for that?
Wouldn't it be better to use those resources for something else and find other ways of ensuring that the mining industry, for instance, is taxed in such a way that there is some redistribution of income?
There are many options as far as redistribution is concerned that need to be taken into account to realize the principles contained in the Freedom Charter.
SA: What interests does the ANC have in common with the South African Paul weinberg Communist Party, and what conflicts
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