Recovering from a cataract operation, I was confined to a dreary routine of riding a stationary bike. To help pass the hours, I turned to my iPod for motivation. My tastes in pop music are broad, stretching from Chubby Checker's The Twist to Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass.I have nearly 2000 songs on my iPod but on Sunday morning, by a twist of fate, Pete Seeger's We Shall Overcome - a protest song that was the key anthem of the civil rights movement - was randomly selected. My eyes began to mist and I felt a lump grow in my throat but I picked up my pace with pride as Seeger encouraged his live audience to sing each refrain with him.Esther, my wife Linda's mother, treasured a note Seeger sent after she wrote him a letter thanking him for how his songs inspired her during the struggle years.It was almost 60 years to the day since the Freedom Charter was proposed to the Congress of People in Kliptown, and only the night before Linda had been chatting to me about some of the stories her mom had told her about the assembly.Esther had worked for almost two years on various committees that were planning the Freedom Charter. Volunteers had canvassed the provinces, explaining the campaign and collecting views. At the same time thousands of new people were recruited to fight for a truly democratic nation. The response was overwhelming.Delegates arrived in Kliptown carrying banners and singing protest songs. By far the most colourful, Esther remembered, were the group from the Natal Midlands. A number of congress members, including Nelson Mandela, were banned and had to watch proceedings from nearby buildings. Police took photos of each attendee and made them sign their name and specify where they had come from. At some point during the discussions there was a police raid for reasons that are not clear, forcing Esther and her friend, Anne, to flee and remain in hiding until sunset, after which they walked under the protection of darkness to Esther's house in Yeoville.The charter was endorsed in Kliptown in 1956. A few months later, Esther's husband, Hymie, an attendee at both congresses, was arrested for high treason. He and the other 155 accused were acquitted in 1958, but that was only the beginning of the couple's long and extended involvement in bringing about political transformation .It is almost inconceivable that after 40 years of bravery and sacrifice we now endure a president who helps himself to taxpayers' money to improve his homestead, and government ministers who conspire to allow a man accused of gross human rights violations to escape arrest.In the "new" nation, ill-trained police under the charge of an unqualified head have killed striking miners; and a young Zuma and a young Mandela have stripped mines of their assets for personal gain, ignoring the plight of a poverty-ridden workforce.But while Nkandla, the Bashir scandal, the Marikana report and the Aurora liquidation might dominate headlines, it is the cry of the corporate world that is even more concerning. Last week three listed companies - Invicta, Dawn and Hudaco - released results that distressingly exposed the country's deindustrialisation and swiftly declining mining sector.Sixty years ago, thousands of brave people walked hand-in-hand for change. I'm not sure there's anybody out there marching with Pete today...