Volume 11, No. 12, 5 April 2012

In this Issue: Tell no lies and claim no easy victories: Prince Mashele and his partners with something in common but all bent against President Jacob Zuma and the ANC A real debate: logistics network is critical for sustainable and redistributive economic growth

Dear readers

The SACP takes this moment to wish our Christian readers a fruitful celebration over the Easter weekend. We hope that as many of our people drive to their respective destinations they will take extra caution to avoid carnage on our roads.

We will publish next week Tuesday a special edition of Umsebenzi on-line in honour of our late General Secretary, Cde Chris Hani.

Wishing all of you a deserved rest!

Socialist regards!

Editor

Red readers corner Tell no lies and claim no easy victories: Prince Mashele and his partners with something in common but all bent against President Jacob Zuma and the ANC

By Alex Mashilo, YCLSA Gauteng Provincial Secretary

From his Quaderni del carcere written from prison between 1929 and 1935 and published in book form Selections from the prison notebooks, Antonio Gramsci had to write: "In war it would sometimes happen that a fierce artillery attack seemed to have destroyed the enemy's entire defensive system, whereas in fact it had only destroyed the outer perimeter; and at the moment of their advance and attack the assailants would find themselves confronted by a line of defence which was still effective. The same thing happens in politics".

Let alone Mashele's attempt to attack President Zuma being too weak to inflict, not even a dent but just a scratch on the outer perimeter, it is only a matter of time he appreciates the collective capacity that the ANC has relating to struggle and engagement, and also that of the national liberation movement, revolutionary alliance, mass democratic movement and an overwhelming majority of our people who are led by the ANC and support it. The same applies to Mashele's partners, let alone those from without but also those from within although perhaps identified less by association but more by deeds. All have one thing in common bent against President Zuma, actually in the process and ultimate analysis also against the ANC in the context of its forthcoming 53rd national conference as scheduled for December 2012 and beyond.

Reverent Frank Chikane is not the only partner of Mashele. There appears to be many. Two only, for now: Floyd Shivambu and Julius Malema.

Under the pretext of advancing equality before the law Shivambu (Mail & Guardian,30 March 2012) writes that President Zuma must be instructed not to appeal a particular judgement of the appeal court. What equality before the law is the one where one must be denied the right to appeal which is provided for by the law, and thereby treated unequal before the law? Just imagine what Shivambu's reaction would have been had he been denied his right to appeal in the internal disciplinary processes of the ANC where he appealed twice already in one case?

Malema (30 March 2012) used a centenary lecture of the ANC at the University of the Witwatersrand to contribute in the manufacture of negative perception about President Zuma. This includes labelling President Zuma a dictator, thereby undermining the entire leadership collective of the ANC and bringing the entire organisation into disrepute.

That is it, back to the prince, especially his trivial writing against President Zuma and the ANC. Mashele (The Sunday Independent, 1 April 2012) writes about the truth, but the question being whether or not President Zuma is educated. The prince does not define what is meant by education. Instead he confuses between education and school. If truth be told actually the school is only one of the many forms of the social organisation of education in human society rather than being the only place where education takes place or is obtained. 

While stating that his focus is education, Mashele actually indistinguishably substitutes education for school. In other words, he intends to discuss education but he replaces it with the school in that where he is supposed to discuss education he discusses, not even school to be frank, but attending school.

Well, is school the same thing as education? Not a bit! However, there is, of course, a socially constructed relationship between the two. Mashele's reliance on Hegelian idealism does not distinguish between education and school, unpack the relationship between the two and define what objectively is meant by an educated person. In Mashele's mind, education does not take place anywhere else in society except at school. From this absurdity it then follows from our prince's idea of education that those who did not attend school are uneducated. To the contrary, in objective reality education takes place in many other spheres of societal activity and not at school only.

The objective truth is that an answer to a question whether a leader, and this applies to any person for that matter, is educated or not, cannot be produced or expected from Mashele's mind or Hegel's idealism, just to mention but only two of the wrong places to search. The answer has to be sought, not in certificates only, but also in an objective assessment of that leader or person. This is done even in the world of work when applications for suitably qualified persons for placement are considered, and also in formal institutions of learning for relevant purposes. About the latter Mashele will lose nothing as a lecturer of politics at the University of Pretoria to ask his colleagues or the institution. Neither will the Midrand grouping to which he belongs lose anything.

There are two criteria in objective assessment relating to education and training worth highlighting for the purpose of the present engagement. Those are, namely, experience and what we called recognition of prior learning, or RPL. Behind the philosophy of RPL is acknowledgement that education is neither limited to school only nor is it an event, but rather that it is a process that takes place also in informal settings or situations, and in work and life experiences which by the way do not exclude class struggle.

A person who went to school, obtained minimum requirements for a pass one grade after another up to or beyond matric and is awarded certificates even without obtaining 100 percent on average or in each or all of the subjects or courses undertaken, is, of course, certificated. True, that person is learned. She or he may also be considered, in context, to be educated. There is a difference between being learned and being educated. But that is not our focus in the present engagement save to highlight the point.

But, does at the end of the analysis mean that another person whose learning and education have not been obtained from school but from other societal activities did not learn anything and is uneducated? To the contrary, it is wrong. In fact, even those who learn and obtain education from school still receive a degree of both outside school, and there are occasions where they are required to learn outside school through practical involvement in societal activities such as work.

Were Mashele not having the problem of a tendency to be unhistorical he would by now know that education predates its social organisation in schools. Our prince would know that the school is itself a product of education. Importantly, schools arise from development in the mode of production, its social organisation, and that of the productive forces. In turn, they have been created among others to contribute to that development.

Hitherto, the school is not the only sphere where education is taking place or obtained. This is if education is properly understood basically as both a human development process to produce and impart knowledge on the one hand and on other a demonstrable competency in employing that knowledge in life and in practice. In terms of training, activities such as skills development, transfer and acquisition are included in the human development process. Human development is a broad faculty - so far we refer to it only in terms of education and training in so far as it is necessary for the present engagement.

It is lack of proper education, wrong and an ill-informed idea to suggest that active involvement in the practical activities of society: production, liberation and social emancipation struggles and the national democratic revolution just to mention a few in South Africa's historical and human development context, does not play a role in education. To the contrary, it does.

President Zuma for example is educated directly from his involvement and experience acquired respectively for half a century and a couple of years in the above-mentioned practical activities of our living human society, not Mashele's dead one. The President's involvement and experience includes a track record in military, intelligence, political education and training which covered economic and social relations of a living society, his involvement in the trade union movement, his leadership in the MK and the ANC, and his involvement in governance as both MEC in KZN and SA's Deputy President before he became the President.

Particularly President Zuma's involvement in governance before his present position actually brings us to expose another characteristic of Mashele's writing which appear in the post-Polokwane period. That characteristic feature is, no doubt opportunism. If one wants to argue differently a compelling case where was Mashele when President Zuma was Deputy President and why did our prince then not write about him the manner he does now would be required. 

Lastly, it has been clearly showed that both participation in societal activities and school have an important role to play in education. That is why we must mobilise the youth to take active involvement in the two and rally behind President Zuma's efforts to support to youth to gain access to education. In general, we must eliminate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, build a non-racial, non-sexist, a democratic and prosperous society in which in particular the education obtained from school including college and university, is free and of a better quality. This must eliminate a situation where access to the school is a commodity to be bought with money and a preserve or privilege for a few some of who like Mashele brag about it in the media for lack of proper education. 

In conclusion our prince must learn to seek truth from facts, and to verify and develop the truth through practice. I just hope Mashele as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria does not teach students that politics and lies are one and the same thing and that he is a lone commentator who does not tell lies. If to the contrary that is what he is lecturing then he will be a big liar who believes that the bigger the lies he tells the better he stands a chance to be believed.

A real debate: logistics network is critical for sustainable and redistributive economic growth

By Mawethu Rune, YCL SA National Deputy Chariperson

Only last week, while driving the outskirts of Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal, not only were the roads bad but we had to leave our cars ten kilometres from our destination and walk in the rain as the road was just impossible to traverse. So bad were the roads not even a horse or cattle drawn cart could have navigated its way through. We had to brave the rain and walk in the slippery roads with the old grannies and grandfathers whom were travelling with  slipping and falling all over the place. This did not only expose them to physical harm but to serious health dangers as well. It would appear that in these areas there were never roads to begin with and where they were there, they have long been washed away by rains, making connecting of communities totally impossible.

It was interesting to note that not once did these senior citizens complain, threaten to strike or not to vote in the next elections. They urged that ANC  led government must act speedily as they would also want to travel in similar roads to those in Gauteng as they see them on television.

Part of the reason why complaints were not forthcoming was that these senior citizens were not confronted with a sudden nightmare but a daily occurrence confronting many of the working class and poor living in rural and township parts of South Africa. It is always worse and during the rainy season it becomes literally impossible to get to town in the hope of accessing some services. As if this is not enough a further burden exists, in that the only available means of transport are bakkies and small trucks overloaded with people in the back and their goods on top of the canopy.

Why roads are important for all

It was in this context that one remembered a discussion in which a Sanral official was boasting that in Johannesburg they built a world class road network and that in some instances up to six or seven lanes are built going to the same direction. The obvious reaction from someone coming from the rural part of South Africa was whether Sanral could not consider taking at least one lane, out of six to the rural Eastern Cape, Limpopo, KZN etc, and the response from SANRAL official was to burst out in laughter because according to him the request made no sense.

Owing to the fact that even post 1994 the private sector had continued with its unending strike when it comes to investing in public infrastructure, while on the other side public sector (more specific SOE's) investment has continued to reinforce the structural defects of the finance, energy and mineral complex gripping our economy with its heavy reliance on the economies of our colonial masters' who continue to extract the raw material of the motherland and export them without any beneficiation.

In class terms it is not per se two economies as some would want us to believe but the centre and periphery of the same economy. One dare say even public sector has reinforced this distortion, in the 17 years of our democracy, government economic policy and resource allocations have not changed these systemic and structural features of our economy. In fact they have reproduced them. The reproduction of apartheid geospatial patterns and economic structure is at the heart of the systemic crisis confronting the government's social and economic policies.

The footprint of public investment particularly of state owned entities continues to follow the geospatial patterns of apartheid such that its presence outside of the industrialised areas is very low. Hence even today there still exists areas which have no reliable logistics network making it almost impossible to access, connect or unlock their potential. For instance the eastern region of the Eastern Cape is a case in point where even Sanral agrees that the Pondoland area has the lowest accessibility ratio in the entire country. Once again, despite the State-owned entity's studies showing the need to address this apartheid legacy, many forces have been allowed to delay this progressive move for over 10 years.

The real discussion

Tempting as it is to be engaged in a blow by blow exercise which will be reductionist, over - sensitive and purely academic, the persuasion is to gravitate towards what matters. The key question is how do progressive forces allocate resources in an effective, sustainable and redistributive manner for the benefit of society particular sections that are less-off.

When comrade Jeremy Cronin penned an article entitled "the toll saga - ideological confusion and strange bedfellows'' in appreciation of this structural distortion he made a significant conclusion that has not been sufficiently enriched let alone engaged with in what were the discussions to follow. Cde JC concludes his article by calling for the  ‘'Tripartite Alliance discussion to focus not so much on how to pay for freeways but more importantly on what are our key infrastructure spending priorities''. Critical response to this invitation is yet to be honoured and one insists that this discussion is the most critical and important than mudslinging and throwing accusations at each other.

Upon invitation of a discussion by Cde Cronin that looks on all sides of e-tolling or what is termed the ‘user-pays principle' as all Marxists should do in  approaching any trajectory not as if it's a coin game, where you have only to choose either the heads or tail and if you choose a wrong side you are doomed. Marxists know that any developing phenomenon in society is bit more complex than head or tail politics. If you do not clap hands when this or that topic is engaged then you are quickly denoted as a sell-out or co-opted.

Coupled with these discussions must be to affirm that sections of society who are less-off and therefore cannot afford to pay for basic necessities of living must not be scorned as ridiculous and therefore they cannot use. Every person in South Africa regardless of his or her social standing in society must have access to a house, electricity, sanitation, health, education, food, clothing, drive or be driven in public roads (transport). The amount in his or her pocket must never be a deterring factor to access and the obligation to pay must not be a pre -condition to access these basics of a productive life.

This affirmation therefore places an obligation on the state which the working class must contest, to galvanise productive sectors of the economy to be productive, discipline capital to increase the fiscus but for purposes of this exercise those who are well off in society must be made to subsidise in solidarity those who are less-off in society.

As it relates to logistic network with particular reference to roads, the structural set up of our economy means that there are areas in our country which are centres of production therefore are better developed such as Johannesburg or Cape Town, but equally there exists areas in the periphery of production which are less developed.

Society cares very little whether roads are national, provincial or local routes the point is that they are public roads and their construction and maintenance requires massive investment from government. If the apartheid economy's spatial distortions are to be addressed as they should be then the transport logistics network among other things becomes one of the strategic elements which require substantial investment and an additional injection to the fiscus.

For the first time after a long time, the pronouncements by President in the State of the Nation Address have indicated that the foot-print of public investment must be equitably shared. As we were getting used to reinforcing the current structural distortions, with Gauteng government sitting on its own and deciding on the Gautrain for  the elite when they run into trouble  the whole country had topay. Even now Gauteng decided to go ahead with the Gauteng Freeway Infrastructure Project (GFIP). After the first phase of the project is complete, with roads built now it must be everyone's problem while a significant number of communities elsewhere do not even having a single strip of decent roads and meaning prospects of economic productivity is equally compromised in those areas.

Opportunity missed

Little or no convincing evidence, besides posturing is put against the argument that if tolling is in indeed WISELY and APPROPRIATELY applied it can as argued, shift resources from upper classes to subsidise establishment of integrated public transport for the whole of society, particularly benefitting the working class and the poor. This is possible IF grounded on principle of cross subsidisation by rich communities of services rendered to poor communities. This would also be done with a view of providing services where they do not exist, upgrading of the inadequate and maintenance of adequate services to prevent them degrading.

The context and application is better captured in response by Cde JC where he writes " I agree that in principle public goods like roads should be funded primarily and overwhelmingly out of the general fiscus, resourced by progressive taxation. But I also agree that for progressive rationing purposes, charging users for access to public goods can also be considered. Particularly in a class society, and particularly in SA, not all users are equal, and there should be positive class discrimination applied in pricing"

No alternative is put against the fact if we are to be productive in a sustainable manner better management of travel and traffic is required. YCLSA of Gauteng captures the basis on campaigning against e -toiling better as is, when it argues "In particular the regime of price setting in which those who own private corporations heap up profit, expropriate surplus value from workers` toil and accumulate it as private capital whereas passing the cost of production and distribution to the consumers, with the working class as the majority, and the state, must not be left to go on unchallenged. Much of our important infrastructure development, and associated transport including Gautrain, has unfortunately been geared to serve the very private accumulation interests".

As we stand today the mess of Gauteng's e-tolling project has made South Africa focus on a single road instead of the national network, which needs investment. Was the R5, 8 billion GFIP bailout new money or probably taken from the allocations that should have been shared by other provinces.

18 years into our democracy, the apartheid geospatial patterns are once again reinforced. One might want to ask where in our country, is the concentration of the poor and an un-affording is working class.

For its cent it may be worth considering

• The real discussion that we must have is investment on logistic networks outside the nodes wherein minerals are extracted and exported. One argues that a logistics network is strategic not only to improve conditions and movements of the working class but also to be a catalyst if we are serious about diversifying our economy through industrialisation therefore breaking the grip of the finance, energy, mineral complex.

• The product of this discussion must be progressive forces being practical on how does a country resource a sustainable investment in its logistics network in a manner that is redistributive and anchored on our economic policy articulations.

• The consistent unprincipled and opportunist attacks aimed at arriving in a pre -determined outcome that the Party or Cde Cronin is compromised, misses an opportunity to enrich the discussion than being only narrow, over-sensitive, dismissive and reductionist.

• With the economy of the country having serious structural constraints owing to its historic setup, any paradigm shift requires much more improved logistics network and therefore progressive forces must be in unison that additional streams of revenue than the currently available are required.

• Central to those streams, capital must be disciplined for greater investment and those who can afford to pay must be in solidarity with those who cannot afford to pay

• The review of SOE's currently underway must direct SANRAL to be more developmental and there must be greater equity and redistribution in improving logistics network

• The tolls as applied in Gauteng are a potential crisis and workers and their class are to be adversely affected in having to pay more, worse with wholly inadequate integrated public transport system, hence deeper questions on how best do we ensure that poor are not worse off and the rich pay for services as the roads cannot be dug out now.

• Serious question must be asked as to where did the 5 billion Rands to bail out Gauteng come from, is this new money? Or are there projects in other provinces that had to be compromised?

• Will resolving this mess by simply not paying work? Is it not equal to saying every tax payer in South Africa must pay for road they are not to use because Gauteng has once again ran itself into problems as we have already seen with R5 billion that must come from the  national fiscus.

• Ability or capacity to pay must never be a pre-condition for accessing basic services in order to live.

• Privatisation of public goods must be rejected in every form it manifests itself.