As long as freedom is not realised and there is poverty and inequality in SA, the Freedom Charter does not exist.

This is according to EFF leader, Julius Malema who on Sunday addressed a large crowd at the party's Freedom Charter rally in Kliptown, Soweto, on Sunday.

The Freedom Charter was officially adopted on Sunday, June 26 1955 at a gathering attended by about 3,000 people.

Sunday's rally looked to exceed that number.

The party's message was clear: The EFF demands section 25 of the constitution be upheld.

According to the section, “no one may be deprived of property except in terms of law of general application and no law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property”.

In 2018 the joint constitutional review committee conducted public hearings to get input on the amendment of section 25.

In a report tabled in the National Assembly it was recommended that “section 25 of the constitution must be amended and be clear about the expropriation of land and property without compensation”.

“This will address historic wrongs of land disposition, ensure fair access to land and empower the majority of South Africans,” it read

On Sunday Malema said: “We are the EFF of the Freedom Charter. When the Freedom Charter was adopted, nobody stood against it. Even apartheid believed that the Freedom Charter was the letter issued to freedom in our lifetime.

“Nelson Mandela led the charter and said there will be freedom in our lifetime. We follow the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and the 1955 generation. But we say, there will be no economic freedom in our lifetime because there can't be freedom without economic freedom.”

Malema said that in 1994, there was political freedom, but it was meaningless, and that they were now doing the work to achieve what the delegates actually wanted.

“As long as freedom is not realised, the Freedom Charter does not exist,” he added. 

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