33 - Document: “The women’s demands for the Freedom Charter”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2021
Summary
This document was compiled by the Federation of South African Women in preparation for the Congress of the People. Many of these demands found their way into the Freedom Charter in an abbreviated form.
WE DEMAND
Four months maternity leave on full pay for working mothers.
Properly staffed and equipped maternity homes, ante-natal clinics, and child welfare centres in all towns and villages, and in the reserves and rural areas.
Day nurseries for the children of working mothers.
Nursery schools for the pre-school children.
Birth control clinics.
WE DEMAND THESE FOR ALL MOTHERS OF ALL RACES.
WE DEMAND
Compulsory, free and universal education from the primary school to the University.
Adequate school feeding and free milk for all children in day nurseries, nursery schools, and
primary and secondary schools.
Special schools for handicapped children.
Play centres and cultural centres for school children.
Properly equipped playgrounds and sportsfields.
Vocational training and apprenticeship facilities.
WE DEMAND THESE FOR ALL CHILDREN OF ALL RACES.
WE DEMAND
Proper houses at rents not more than 10 percent of the earnings of the head of the household.
Indoor sanitation, water supply and proper lighting in our homes.
The right to own our own homes and the land on which we build them.
The right to live where we choose.
Housing loan schemes at low rates of interest.
Lighting in our streets.
Properly made roads and storm water drainage.
Adequate public transport facilities.
Parks and recreation centres.
Sportsfields and swimming pools.
Public conveniences.
WE DEMAND THESE FOR ALL PEOPLE OF ALL RACES
WE DEMAND
Better shopping facilities, particularly in the non-European townships.
More dairies, and full supplies of pasteurised whole milk.
Mobile vegetable markets.
Subsidisation of all protective foods: Bread, Meal, Meat, Milk, Vegetables and Fruit.
Controlled prices for all essential commodities: Food, Basic Clothing, Fuel.
Fair rationing of essential foods and fuel when in short supply.
WE DEMAND THESE FOR ALL PEOPLE IN ALL PLACES.
WE DEMAND
The right of ALL people to own and work their own farms.
The development of all uncultivated land.
The fair distribution of land amongst ALL people.
The mechanisation of methods of food production.
The scientific improvement of land by:
a. Irrigation and intensive farming.
b. Control of soil erosion and improvement of the soil.
c. Supply of seed to all people producing from the land.
Efficient organisation of the distribution and marketing of food.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- 50 Years of the Freedom Charter , pp. 167 - 172Publisher: University of South AfricaPrint publication year: 2006