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In that sense liberalism is associated with a call for universal freedom. It claimed to provide rights to the individual on a universal basis instead of those held by hereditary feudal rulers, and this was to be based on consent of the people. The individual right to demand limits on state actions, derives from a progressive origin when liberal demands curbed absolute monarchy and feudal rights denying individual freedom. The demand that freedom be limited has two prongs. Some refer to liberal democracy as not being “unlimited”, implying that there is a need to curb “excesses”. It also stresses the rights of individuals as opposed to collective action and rights, by curbing what the state or society may do or what may be done by or in the name of the majority of the population. But many definitions stress its limited nature, that it sets limits on what any person and the state can do, and it prizes its capacity to prevent abuse. There are various permutations that may fall under the same label. Like liberalism, liberal democracy does not have one agreed meaning. (See In the shadow of Chief Albert Luthuli. In the case of Alan Paton, he had a close relationship with Chief Albert Luthuli and EV Mahomed, a Liberal Party member provided considerable support to the Chief, while he was under house arrest. There were variants in understandings of liberalism and some liberals had close relationships with leading ANC figures. The Liberal Party and other liberals generally condemned the turn to illegality and armed struggle, which increased the distance between them and the ANC and the PAC. It related to liberal opposition to or ambiguity on universal suffrage for some time, their opposition to substantial socio-economic transformation and shuffling backwards and forwards on issues like the invitation received by the Liberal Party to participate in the Congress of the People, leading to the adoption of the Freedom Charter.
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Liberalism was a doctrine from which the liberation movements distanced themselves in various respects, and sometimes for distinct reasons. (See Ben Turok (ed) Readings in the ANC Tradition, volume 1: Policy and Praxis, 3, 2011. The ANC/SACP and COSATU (previously SACTU, the South African Congress of Trade Unions) referred in the past and to this day to the democracy to which they aspired as ‘national democracy’.
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Yes, they wanted democracy, but the word liberal was not part of any programme of the ANC, SACP, BC or PAC. Many or almost all who were involved in the struggle for freedom in South Africa never used the words “liberal democracy” when speaking of the type of order they wanted to replace apartheid. The liberation movement tradition is not a liberal tradition.