01/02/2026
Freedom in our lifetime! - From 1948, when apartheid was brutally legislated into existence, our people in the villages, townships and dusty roads of Taung, Mafikeng, Klerksdorp, Rustenburg, Potchefstroom, Lichtenburg, Coligny and Jouberton refused to accept subjugation as their destiny.
In the 1950s the ANC Youth League – with sons and daughters of the North West at its forefront – pushed the organisation to adopt a more militant programme of action. The Defiance Campaign saw our people here marching, refusing passes, sitting in “Europeans Only” spaces, and filling the cells of local police stations with courageous defiance.
When the Freedom Charter was born in 1955, voices from the North West helped shape those immortal words:
- “The land shall be shared among those who work it”
- “The doors of learning and culture shall be opened”
- “There shall be work and security”
These were not distant dreams – they were promises carved from the pain of farm evictions, forced removals from Plaatfontein, Central and the Western Transvaal reserves.
Then came the dark years.
After Sharpeville (1960) the ANC was banned, but in the North West the underground flame never went out.
In the 1970s and 80s, students from Mmabatho, Ga-Rankuwa, Jouberton, Ikageng and many other townships answered the call of 1976 Soweto – they boycotted, they organised, they faced teargas, bullets and detention without flinching.
When the unbanning came in 1990 and Madiba walked free, North West people lined the roads from Mafikeng to Taung, from Rustenburg to Vryburg – ululating, singing, weeping with joy.
And on 27 April 1994, under that blazing North West sun, our grandparents, our mothers, our schoolchildren stood in long, patient queues at voting stations in Lehurutshe, Ditsobotla, Molopo, Greater Taung, Madibeng, Rustenburg, Matlosana – casting the vote that finally broke the chains.
That was Freedom in our lifetime!
Today we remember.
We remember so that the youth of Jouberton, Ikageng, Mogwase, Schweizer-Reneke, Brits, Ottosdal, Delareyville, and every corner of the North West Province will know:
This freedom was paid for with blood, sweat, prison years and sacrifice – right here on this land.
The same spirit that refused to bow in 1948, that rose again in 1976, that voted in 1994 – that spirit still lives in us.
Let it rise again.
For quality education in every village school.
For jobs with dignity on the mines and farms we built.
For water, electricity, tarred roads and clinics that actually work.
For land returned and prosperity shared.
The North West did not just witness history – we made history.
And we are not finished yet!
