A germane question in contemporary South Africa is why the ruling ANC alliance, a once
united liberation movement, which dislodged the apartheid state to assume governmental
control, fractured in the post-liberation phase. This paper discusses how the ANC alliance’s
inherited “revolutionary” language, useful in mobilising the diverse “ideological interests”
into a united liberation front to bring down the apartheid state, is most divisive in the post-
1994 liberation period. Thus, the 1955 Freedom Charter, the ANC-led alliance’s main
program encapsulating historical black liberation ideals is explored. Its significance lies in
President Jacob Zuma's designation of 2015 as the Year of the Freedom Charter. Yet the 60
year old Freedom Charter is a very controversial document. The paper argues that the
inherent ambiguity in the language of the Freedom Charter renders it contestable, thus
vulnerable to wide re-interpretation by competing “ideological groups” within the ANC
alliance. As a program of liberation ideals, the Freedom Charter is evoked in the post-1994
era by those who advocate a de-racialised pro-capitalist black nationalist trajectory and
socialists seeking a working class revolution. Utilising the theoretical perspective of the
functions of ideology to unify and divide groups, the ANC alliance’s and government policy
documents are researched. Further research on how this language continues to be used in
current contentious policy debates in the South African political landscape is vital.