Nair: After the Congress of the People, report back meetings were held in all the areas, at factory levels, and in fact, in all the affiliates of the Joint Congress organisations.

The task of all delegates was exactly that. They were pressed upon to do so at the Congress itself. They had to report back and go out, mobilising and organising.

Q: Were people satisfied with the Freedom Charter at the report backs, or were they disappointed?

Nair: Far from disappointment, at all the report back meetings that we had, the Freedom Charter was fully supported and wholly endorsed.

Tshabangu: From Kliptown it was our duty now to impart what we accepted, the Freedom Charter. I am one of those who took an active part conveying this message, house to house, where I stayed [Dube, Soweto]. I entered each and every house in my area for the Freedom Charter. I spread that gospel.

And I must say all the people accepted it, even those who had no membership with the mother body [ANC]. But automatically they felt that they were part and parcel of that movement.

It was in 1955. We could see now liberation, we could smell freedom in front of us.

Esakjee: There were report back meetings in every area. In Johannesburg, people went back. In the rural areas as well, especially where delegates come from. The delegates were sent a lot of literature, especially the Freedom Charter itself. We had report back meetings, big and small, on sports fields, homes, halls.

In Durban Dorothy Nyembe remembers the main report back meeting being held at Currie's Fountain.

Q: How many people were at the meeting at Currie's Fountain?

MaNyembe: Really, I don't remember. I can't tell a lie.

Q: A lot?

MaNyembe: It was a full square, a full square.

Q: Thousands?

MaNyembe: Thousands? Come! Thousands is nothing at Currie's Fountain. I know only that the place was full. [Another informant tells us that when full, Currie's Fountain would hold perhaps 40 000.]