Apartheid Legislation a crime against humanity?
I refer to Article 2, of the July 1976, United Nations General Assembly, declaring Apartheid a crime against humanity, any participation in Apartheid, through the participation in the economic segregation process, is as a crime against humanity, in particular, through the ‘social’ and ‘economic’ categories,
Article 2:
c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country
I am of the opinion that the damage done to our non-white populations, are more than extreme, and in particular the damage caused through the social and economic segregation.
During the second world war, most of the Colonised African countries, joined their Coloniser’s war efforts, encouraged by typical promises by the Coloniser, to make changes for the African when the war was over.
The indigenous populations of the African Colonies, were united as Africanist Nationalists from 1943 to 1949, and the Atlantic Charter, was accepted by the Africanist, to included Africa and their people, in the Clauses of the Charter.
The South African ‘Africanist’ population complied and ratified their Atlantic Charter, for the African in Southern Africa, under the title, “Africans Claims in South Africa” in 1943.
With regard to the African’s claim for social and economic participation in the South African society, I extract clauses 7 and 8 of the 1943 Bill of Rights, which I submit, would have allowed human dignity to return to our African population, and I submit that this would be the concept of what human dignity requires to be possible.
7. The right to own, buy, hire or lease and occupy land and all other forms of immovable as well as movable property, and the repeal of restrictions on this right in the Native Land Act, the Native Trust and Land Act, the Natives (Urban Areas) Act and the Natives Laws Amendment Act.
8. The right to engage in all forms of lawful occupations, trades and professions, on the same terms and conditions as members of other sections of the population.
Nelson Mandela and the ANC Youth League drive a very similar set of documents in 1949, this is ratified as the 1949 Programme of Action:
The next important declaration by the African through the Congress of Democrats, is the 1955 Freedom Charter, and I submit that the content of the social and economic desires of the non-white, remains;
FREEDOM CHARTER
THE PEOPLE SHALL SHARE IN THE COUNTRY’S WEALTH!
The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and the monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people;
All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
THERE SHALL BE WORK AND SECURITY!
All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers;
The State shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;
Twenty-one years later, the Apartheid system has not complied with the non-white wishes, and the United Nations declares Apartheid a Crime Against Humanity.
A crime against humanity, is mainly considered against the responsible leader, I submit that all those who participated in economic segregation, accumulating wealth, while the non-whites were segregated, were complicit in the crime against humanity.
Nelson Mandela was a supporter of the Freedom Charter, he ‘approved’ the 1993 South African Interim Constitution, and to my best knowledge, the New Constitution was promulgated by President Nelson Mandela on 18 December 1996 and came into effect on 4 February 1997, replacing the Interim Constitution of 1993.
I am not going to attach any direct responsibility to Nelson Mandela, for signing the New Constitution, or, allocate any direct blame on President Ramaphosa and his white Nationalist Party MP friend, Roelf Meyer, for having introduced a sentence, in the content of one of the clauses of the Bill of Rights, that I consider the greatest human rights abuse.
It is pretty simple, when ratifying the New Constitution, the Coloniser, the Apartheid system, and the ruling ANC party, under President Nelson Mandela, removed the dignity that the African people had developed in their Freedom Struggle, by using Apartheid legislation to remove opportunity.
Cedric de la Harpe
PAMPHLET 11 Lack of Opportunity stimulates crime;
Pamphlet 13 Is South Africa’s Constitution as crime against humanity.
Cedric is available to consult with all interested structures and communities, please email him on safari@tasteofafric.co.za
For the individual who would like to experience the basis of the knowledge that has become his Human Dictate philosophy, please join us for a visit to Soweto or Alexandra; where you will get greater understanding and get closer to the Human Dictate.
Cedric and Nettie de la Harpe