<P> 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 . </P>
<P> 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 . </P>
who formed part of the process of setting up the freedom charter
who formed part of the process of setting up the freedom charter
Z.K. Mathews Lionel `` Rusty '' Bernstein Ethel Drus Ethel Drus Alan Lipman
Z.K. Mathews Lionel `` Rusty '' Bernstein Ethel Drus Ethel Drus Alan Lipman