In 1955, the ANC sent out 50,000 volunteers into townships and the countryside to collect "freedom demands '' from the people of South Africa. This system was designed to give all South Africans equal rights. Demands such as "Land to be given to all landless people '', "Living wages and shorter hours of work '', "Free and compulsory education, irrespective of colour, race or nationality '' were synthesized into the final document by ANC leaders including Z.K. Mathews, Lionel "Rusty '' Bernstein, Ethel Drus, Ruth First and Alan Lipman (whose wife, Beata Lipman, hand - wrote the original Charter). The Charter was officially adopted on 26 June 1955 at a Congress of the People in Kliptown. The meeting was attended by roughly 3,000 delegates but was broken up by police on the second day, although by then the charter had been read in full. The crowd had shouted its approval of each section with cries of "Afrika! '' and "Mayibuye! '' Nelson Mandela escaped the police by disguising himself as a milkman, as his movements and interactions were restricted by banning orders at the time.
who formed part of the process of setting up the freedom charter
Z.K. Mathews Lionel "Rusty '' Bernstein Ethel Drus Ethel Drus Alan Lipman