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Volume 15, No. 09, 10 March 2016 |
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Red Alert SACP statement on the Gauteng High Court judgment granting parole the unrepentant murderer Janusz Waluś who killed our former General Secretary Comrade Chris Hani |
SACP Statement, 10 March 2015
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is gravely disappointed and appalled at the Gauteng North High Court`s judgement effectively releasing from prison on parole the unrepentant murderer, Janusz Waluś who pulled the trigger killing our former General Secretary Comrade Chris Hani on 10 April 1993. During the proceedings at the Court on 2 March, Judge Nicoline Janse Van Nieuwenhuizen made biased remarks suggesting that it was time to forget and move on and that the murderer must be treated with compassion, as if his killing of Hani was compassionate.
The SACP and the family of the late Comrade Chris Hani took serious exception of the biased comments which indicated to us that possibly the Judge had predetermined views about the matter in favour of the unrepentant murderer.
It therefore did not come as a complete surprise today when she set aside the decision of the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services to decline parole for the unrepentant murderer pending applicable processes. The Judge has ordered that the murderer "be placed on parole within 14 days" and that the Minister must "impose the necessary parole conditions within 14 days" from today respectively.
Whilst we respect the Courts, we wish to reiterate our call that the courts should not blur the lines of the principle of separation of powers and encroach into the executive sphere where by means of their judgements they ultimately replace the democratically elected executive authority by the rule of the Court.
The SACP and the family of the late Comrade Chris Hani are not prepared to leave the matter unchallenged. We are studying the judgments and will decide on the next cause of action. There are many legal difficulties in the judgment and we believe there are good prospects of successfully appealing. We would encourage the Minister to appeal this judgment.
Meanwhile, issues relating to forgiveness have come out. The foundation of forgiveness is truth and the whole truth. Just because Janusz Waluś wrote a letter requesting to meet the family of Comrade Chris Hani to ask for forgiveness does not mean that he has disclosed the entire truth surrounding the murder of Comrade Chris Hani.
Issued by the SACP
SACP statement on former President Thabo Mbeki and HIV and AIDS denialism
SACP Statement, 10 March 2015
The SACP finds it very strange that former President Thabo Mbeki`s letters are said to be correcting `falsehoods` and yet Mbeki himself seems to be making matters worse. Mbeki now is deliberately telling a falsehood if he says he never said HIV does not cause AIDS, but instead he said, on the same matter, `a virus cannot cause a syndrome`. No amount of English and political sophistry will take away the fact that Mbeki`s AIDS denialism directly led to the death of hundreds of thousands of South Africans. The fact of the matter is that government, under Mbeki, did not roll out antiretroviral treatment which would have saved these lives.
Instead of flooding us with these letters, the SACP calls upon former President Mbeki to boldly own up to his AIDS mistakes and apologise to the South African people. Nothing will "correct falsehoods" about this matter.
Whilst Mbeki has found it necessary to mention the name of our General Secretary on some of his earlier letters, in this case he has found it convenient to omit the name of Cde Blade in the unfolding saga of his AIDS denialism. Let us remind him.
In his address to the 7th National Congress of Cosatu in September 2000, SACP General Secretary Comrade Blade Nzimande had this to say in the context of the problems of HIV and AIDS denialism ("a virus [HIV] cannot cause a syndrome [AIDS]") and the need to deal with poverty:
"The SACP accepts the view of the scientific community that the HI Virus causes AIDS. The SACP also agrees that opportunistic diseases that thrive in conditions of poverty like TB and malaria do indeed increase amongst poor people infected with the HI Virus."
It was for the statement "The SACP accepts the view of the scientific community that the HI Virus causes AIDS" that Cde Blade was to endure an eight hour Mbeki-instigated vicious and personalised attacks at the next meeting of the ANC national executive committee chaired by Mr Terror Lekota with Thabo Mbeki as President. Full details about this personalised attack will be told at an appropriate time in the future.
For the record, no one can deny the importance of proper and balanced nutrition to strengthen the immune system as well as the need to deal with the social context of poverty which denies many people access to proper and balanced nutrition and plunge them in conditions where disease thrives.
Also, the issue of imperialist machination and the problem of foreign monopoly dominance in the pharmaceutical sector are undeniable. This is why the SACP has long been campaigning for the establishment of a state owned pharmaceutical company underpinned by measures to strengthen research and development to find new scientific solutions, medical and medicinal, to the health problems that our society faces and those that we could likely come across in future.
Since our country discarded HIV and AIDS denialism, in particular following the exit of Mbeki from government massive progress was made to confront HIV.
This was recognized on 27 January 2015 by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) in its press release on the latest report at that time on mortality which revealed a steady improvement in life expectancy in the country. "According to this Rapid Mortality Surveillance Report 2013, issued by the council`s Burden of Disease Research Unit", said the SAMRC, "South Africa`s life expectancy has escalated to 62 years in 2013 (i.e. four years since the government started implanting its rigorous HIV treatment in 2009) - a staggering increase of 8.5 years since the low in 2005". "Improvements in average life expectancy in South Africa are reason to celebrate and can be attributed in major parts to the country`s vigorous response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in recent years," said Dr Debbie Bradshaw, Director at the SAMRC`s Burden of Disease Research Unit.
Mbeki should actually commend the work that was done by the government since 2009 to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who contracted the HI virus. The work was not done during his tenure as President due to the contradictions of "a virus [HIV] cannot cause a syndrome [AIDS]" mantra that he propagated and still sphasises to this day.
The SACP fully agrees with the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) and the government that we must ignore Mbeki`s letter on HIV and AIDS and instead focus our efforts on strengthening government`s commendable efforts to combat this scourge and improve the health of our people.
Issued by the SACP
Moving into action: In solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine
By Chris `Che` Matlhako
The unlawful occupation of Palestinian land, Palestinian suffering and the violence which Palestinians are subjected to, all at the hands of the Israeli state, are well known.
The headlines detailing the deaths of Palestinian civilians every time Israel launches a war, the hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention held without charge or trial, the incarceration of minors, the destruction of homes, the severe restriction on movements, the unequal access to water and housing, the construction of a massive wall blockading and dividing Palestinian towns and cities - all of this are well known - confirmed in reports by the United Nations and progressive non-governmental organisations, reports by journalists, academic writings and even organisations within Israel, among others. It is therefore deeply worrying that Israel is allowed to continue violating the rights of the Palestinian people.
The fact is that the situation is very similar to that of apartheid South Africa - and we are not just referring to the sufferings of the Palestinian people and the people of South Africa who were oppressed under colonialism and apartheid as being similar. We are talking about the way in which apartheid South Africa was almost immune from the Western imperialist powers and how today too Israel is almost immune.
The world was aware of the evil nature of the apartheid regime and the suffering of the oppressed in South Africa but Pretoria was allowed to continue with its awful treatment of non-whites because the presence of a capitalist white government ensured that the spectre of communism and socialism was kept at bay. As long as the racist elites and those they have co-opted from the oppressed were shielded from the suffering that the majority of South Africans experienced criticism against South Africa from the West was soft if any at all.
The very same scenario is playing out in respect of Palestine-Israel. It is becoming increasingly important to ensure that people are conscious of the fact that there is nothing normal in that situation. There is no conflict between two equal sides.
There is in Palestine oppression by an apartheid Israeli regime against the oppressed and excluded indigenous Palestinian population on the basis of ethnicity and religion based on the system of capitalism. The importance of efforts to remind people that the ideology which fuelled apartheid in South Africa is the same ideology employed by Israel in its brutality against the Palestinian people cannot be overestimated. Let us also recall that the two, apartheid South Africa and Israel had forged close relations with each other on the basis of their common platform of apartheid against the people of the two lands respectively.
Anyone who is watching closely will see that building more illegal settlements makes it impossible for Palestinians ever to have their own state. What remains of Palestine - the Occupied Palestinian Territories - is fragmented by the apartheid wall that snakes its way across the land in a blatant attempt to occupy more land.
Israel has no intention whatsoever of finding a solution - perhaps some Israelis do, but the governments that have been power in that apartheid regime have not focused on solutions. This was the same situation in the 1980s in South Africa. It is our responsibility to support efforts that make it difficult for people, states and governments to ignore Israels human rights violations.
One such event is Israeli Apartheid Week which was initiated in 2004 and is currently in session since Monday, 7 March. Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual series of lectures, rallies, concerts, protests and other activists against the Israeli occupation and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli Apartheid Week is held annually in February and March and it is held this year in South Africa between 7 and 13 March.
The aim of Israeli Apartheid Week is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement. Each year, Israeli Apartheid Week takes place across more than 200 universities and cities. It aims to raise awareness about Israels ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies over the Palestinian people.
Israeli Apartheid Week is more than just about educating people, it is about getting people to act, to drive change, to take a stand on the right side of history. Israeli Apartheid Week events seek to challenge this in creating an environment in which Israels human rights violations are exposed. If we are to assist in solving this issue we would need to know exactly what the root of the problem is. No one talks about solutions unless they recognise there is a problem.
Israeli Apartheid is a problem and Israeli Apartheid Week together with the BDS campaign and other solidarity actions are the solution. We welcome that this year the Israeli Apartheid Week team in South Africa, with the support of the Embassy of the State of Palestine is hosting Professor Uri Davis. Dr Uri Davis, of Jewish origin, grew up in the Israeli town of Kfar Shmariyahu and is today an Associate Professor at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, Palestine.
Dr Uri Davis has been at the forefront of the defence of human rights in Israel-Palestine. He has published extensively and is best known for his book titled Apartheid Israel: The Struggle Within" (Zed Books, London, 2003). The book has been described as a devastating critique of Israels apartheid policy.
Davis has sometimes been compared to our own former General Secretary, Comrade Joe Slovo. Slovo stood out from his community when, as a white comrade, he insisted on being critical of the White minority regimes policies and practices. Likewise, Uri Davis too, has broken from his own Jewish and Israeli community to speak out against the Israeli regime. The hosting of Uri Davis also breaks the myth and baseless allegation that those of us like the SACP who unashamedly support the Palestinian people are against Jews or Judaism - what we are against is the ideology of Zionism, the platform from which current day Israeli apartheid policies are driven.
It is in the spirit of solidarity with the oppressed and their struggle for freedom that we as SACP leaders and members support Israeli Apartheid Week and make an effort to be participate in the campaigns activities in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are oppressed, a people who we have a debt to for it was them that stood with us during the darkest days of apartheid in our own country when the apartheid Israel forged close relations with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Cde Chris Che Matlhako is SACP Central Committee member and Secretary for International Affairs. This is an edited version of a piece that was first published by SACP Eastern Cape Bulletin (February 2016).
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