Launched on July 29, 1921, in the first quarter of this century, the SACP celebrates its last anniversary of this millennium. From its early beginning in the white left-wing worker movement in our country, the Communist Party in SA rapidly Africanised itself from 1924 – long before this was in vogue. Already, by the end of the 1920s the overwhelming majority of Communists in South Africa were black. For much of our nearly eighty years of existence the Party was the only non-racial political party in South Africa. The Party and its militants pioneered the progressive trade union movement in South Africa, and the long traditions of independent and critical journalism.
In 1928 the Communist Party was the first political force in South Africa to call for full majority rule, under the slogan of the struggle for a Native Republic. From the same date, our Party has been in an alliance with the ANC – those who dream of breaking the alliance, as if it were some recent and convenient electoral arrangement would do well to remember this long and deep-rooted reality.
Before any other political party, it was the Communist Party that was banned, in 1950, by the incoming apartheid regime. We have survived decades of persecution. The list of South African communist martyrs is long, it includes Johannes Nkosi (assassinated in 1930), Vuyisile Mini (hanged in the 1960s), Ahmed Timol (murdered in detention in the 1970s); Matthew Goniwe (killed in the 1980s); and Chris Hani (gunned down in the midst of the 1990s negotiations).
Today, the SACP enjoys high prestige amongst working people and the urban and rural poor. The Party’s standing within the trade union movement has never been as high. Following the June 2 elections of this year, there are now 7 cabinet ministers and one deputy cabinet minister who are Communists. There are also hundreds of Communists who are premiers, MPs, MECs, MPLs, mayors and councillors. These Communists are in positions of authority under the direct mandate of the ANC, not the SACP, but their numbers are, we believe, an indication of the standing that communists have within our wider ANC-led movement.
Advances, achievements and lessons of the past five years
As the SACP we are indeed proud of the achievements of the ANC-led government over the past five years. We are also proud to claim that we have not been spectators in this struggle to create a better life for all. Communists have been an integral component of the forces for change and transformation in our country. We have rolled up our sleeves and involved ourselves in government, in building mass organisations, in development committees in the urban and rural areas, and generally in ensuring that our people as a whole are part and parcel of this huge transformation effort.
Those, a diminishing number in our country, who try to evoke the “spectre” of Communism, should leave the realm of speculation and judge communists in South Africa on the actual performance of our comrades in numerous positions of responsibility – and not just those in government, or legislatures. All over our country, there are Communists who are school principals, staff nurses, trade union leaders and shop-stewards, SRC activists, participants in community policing or development forums, school governing bodies or rural water committees. They are all actively contributing, as Communists and patriots, to the reconstruction and development of our country.
Indeed, one of the most important lessons of the last five years is that the enormous progress made in the social upliftment of our people has been as a result of an aggressive state-led programme of development and social delivery. The provision of water, electricity, phone connections, houses, clinics and educational facilities to millions of our people has not been as a result of any ideologically-driven privatisation process. The resources harnessed from the private sector have made a larger impact on the social conditions of our people, where these have been closely guided and led by an active state. These achievements have been buttressed by participation of communities through hundreds of local development committees and forums. This reinforces our belief that it is only an active, developmental state, acting in concert with the mass of our people, that is key to the implementation of the RDP. This role of the state underlines the importance and correctness of our struggle to roll back the market in the provision of social services and the realisation of a better life for all.
Our 10th Congress Party Programme commits us to a struggle to defend and extend the public sector: “It is in the context of ensuring that the state is able to set an active social and economic agenda that the SACP opposes all ideologically driven attempts to privatise public sector enterprises and resources. The private sector is not, by definition, ‘more efficient’ – and especially not in meeting basic social needs… Public resources must not be sold off simply to foster a new black elite. The public resources within the public sector must be used actively for development” (p.50). It is this struggle that we need to take forward in order to advance and deepen the national democratic revolution and lay a firm foundation for socialism.
Elections
We are emerging, as the SACP, and as the broader ANC-led alliance, from a highly successful election campaign, in which we achieved our key strategic objective – an overwhelming majority for the ANC. We fought the election on the basis of an ongoing commitment to implement the RDP, and indeed to speed up the pace of delivery. The election campaign enabled us to re-connect with our mass base, and the message we carried has been massively endorsed by the working people, and the urban and rural poor of our country.
It is imperative that, as an alliance, we now maintain the momentum that the elections have given us. On the 5th and 6th of August, the SACP will be holding a major national summit with the ANC, COSATU and SANCO. At the Summit we shall be discussing the implementation of a common programme of action to deepen our organisational, grass-roots work.
Job Loss Crisis
The ANC-led alliance finds itself governing a society in which the economy has been run-down, plundered, and generally mismanaged for decades. To make matters worse, we are seeking to reconstruct and develop our society at a time when there are serious global economic problems. Globalisation over the last decade has left 80 countries poorer now than they were in 1990. The gap between rich and poor has grown. As a third world country, considerably reliant on exports and imports, South Africa’s economy has also been buffeted by the global capitalist economic crisis.
These realities constitute much of the background to the current job loss bloodbath. In the past five years, half a million workers have been retrenched. This year tens of thousands more jobs in mining, manufacturing, services and the parastatals are threatened.
Very little of this is the fault of the ANC-led alliance, but it is our responsibility. What can we do? In the first place, we must implement the resolutions of last year’s October Presidential Job Summit with a much greater sense of urgency. Key among these resolutions, as far as the SACP is concerned, are:
Policies, like GEAR, have been too much premised on the assumption that if government sends the right macro-economic signals, foreign investors will invest in production, and we will be able to grow and develop. Despite over-fulfilling our budget deficit target (latest figures suggest it is now at 2,9%), and despite doing well on inflation reduction and fiscal restraint, foreign direct investment has been extremely disappointing. Foreign investment flows have been into the stock market, or into purchasing shares in South African companies, and not into building new plant and jobs. It is only by taking a lead in our own industrial planning that we will really attract effective private (international and domestic) investment.
Despite the very serious news on the jobs front, there are some positive features of the last period which we should note, and which we should build upon:
These three examples – of the IMF, ERPM and Spoornet – underline our conviction that the jobs crisis can, and must be seized as an opportunity to implement energetic, progressive policies. There are no simple solutions to the problems we are facing, but if we combine popular and working class mobilisation with state power, we can begin to impact on the problems we face.
Public Sector Wage Negotiations
Leading Party comrades find themselves (in their capacity as ministers and trade union leaders) on both sides of the public sector wage negotiations. Rather than seeing this as a cause for embarrassment or hesitation, the SACP, along with its alliance partners, sees in this reality a challenge. The SACP Central Committee of the 17th and 18th of July discussed this question extensively.
We stated that the exact wage increase this year should be a matter of negotiation between unions and government. But we noted that the whole public sector wage negotiations process needed to be reviewed in the coming months. Government has tabled a fixed amount, budgeted in a transparent process through parliament. There are good arguments for this, but it makes any meaningful negotiations difficult if government’s first offer is, also, more or less its final offer.
In future years, we need to ensure that public sector unions are brought into a negotiating process before the budget goes through parliament. We also need to ensure that the wage bill is guided by clear policy, which must also now be developed as a priority.
But the current public sector wage negotiations raise other issues as well. The public sector, contrary to what is sometimes claimed, has not grown in the last five years. It is down from 1 270 112 in September 1995 to 1 100 784 in December last year. There are critical shortages in key strategic areas – in the coming one to two years there will be a shortage of some 10 000 teachers, for instance. Moreover, key areas like education and policing are labour intensive. A class-room under a tree is not desirable, but it is possible if there is a dedicated teacher. A hi-tech class-room without a teacher is useless. We need a proper skills audit of the public sector, and we need to be able to make informed decisions about the size of the public sector we require.
If we have critical developmental priorities then we must have the political will to raise the resources required. VAT is sometimes mentioned, but it is not the only tax – we have recently dropped company tax from 35% to 30% with little evidence that private companies will invest the 5% saved in productive, job-creating activities. There are also the billions that could be saved from the Government Employees Pension Fund. Let some of this be invested in service delivery infrastructure, so that we can also release funds to pay for a skilled, motivated and effective public sector.
Socialism is the future, build it now
These are some of the issues around which we must mobilise mass forces. These are also some of the issues which the SACP will be carrying into the Alliance Summit of August 5th and 6th.
We are living in difficult times, in which working people are confronted with great hardships. But we are also active in a South African context in which we have emerged with an overwhelming electoral victory. We have promised millions of South Africans that we are determined to stick with our RDP perspectives, and that we are committed to accelerating the pace of change – for a better life for all.
The SACP, 78 years on from its launch, continues to believe that a better life for all means a progressive socialisation of our society. It means ensuring that, every step of the way, we look at our reality from the perspective of the working class, the urban and rural poor, the wretched of the earth. The strengths that we have, and the crises that we confront, must all be turned into a determination to advance the national democratic revolution.
SACP 78th Anniversary Provincial Activities:
The following are some of the events and activities that will be taking place throughout
the country, from the 29th July - 1st August 1999, to celebrate the 78th Anniversary of
the SACP as well as to affirm the objective of transforming our society to socialism.
1. Western Cape Province
Focus on mass meetings (mini rallies)
1.1. Rally at Worcester
Date: 01/08/99 (Sunday)
Venue: I'zwelethemba Multi Purpose Center
Time: 13H00
Main Speaker: SACP General Secretary Dr. Blade Nzimande
1.2. Mass meeting at Moses Kotane branch
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 18H00
1.3. Matthew Goniwe Branch mass meeting
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 18H00
Venue: South East Metro Civic Hall
1.4. Kamandi branch (Stellenbosch) mass meeting
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 18H00
2. Gauteng Province
Focus on Seminars
2.1. Johannesburg (Seminar)
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 12H00-16H00
Venue: St. Endas Community College, Joubert Park
Panelists: Dr. Blade Nzimande SACP General Secretary
2.2. Diepkloof (Seminar)
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 10H00
Venue: Diepkloof (to be confirmed)
2.3. Kyalami (rally)
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 10H00
Venue: Thuthukani Hall, Ivory Park
2.4. Pretoria (Seminar)
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 09H00
Venue: Mamelodi (to be confirmed)
2.5. East Rand (District congress)
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 08H00
Venue: Eastern Gauteng Services Council, Germiston.
3. Kwazulu-Natal
3.1. Cato Manor (Rally) main event
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 10H00
Venue: Bonela stadium
Main Speaker:
3.2. Red Thursday blitzes in the following areas, all taking place on the 29/07/99
The Party leadership to address a joint meeting of Post Office and Telkom workers in
Durban at 12H00
Address of CEPWAWU workers at 13H00 in Mobeni industrial area
In Pietermaritzburg, SACP leaders will address Unifood workers at 14H00
And workers at New Prison at 12H30 still in P/Maritzburg
4. Northern Cape
Focus on launching SACP branches
4.1. Kimberly
Morning blitzes at taxi ranks, railway station and in factories on the Red Thursday
29/07/99
Mass meeting at Galeshewe township
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 17H00
Venue: R.C. Elliot Hall
Party stalls in the township and the taxi ranks
4.2. De Aar district (mass meetings)
Launching two branches( Nonzwagazi and Strydenburg)
Nonzwagazi Branch (launch)
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 16H00
Venue: Nonzwagazi Hall
Strydenburg Branch (launch)
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 18H00
Venue: Strydenburg Primary School
4.3. Kuruman district (launching of two SACP mine branches in Finsch and Shishen)
Finsch mine branch
Date: 29/07/99
Venue: Finsch Community Hall
Time: 17H00
Shishen mine branch
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 17H00
Venue: Shishen Community Hall
5. Free State province
Focus on political education schools
5.1. Political school for all branches in and around Bloemfontein on the history of the
SACP.
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 09H00
Venue: Bloemfontein (to be finalised)
5.2. Welkom:
March against job losses organised by the SACP and COSATU, all provincial districts
involved in the march
Venue: Welkom city
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 10H00
6. North West Province
Focus on political education
6.1. Rustenburg district SACP-NUM political school
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 09H00
Venue: CDC center
6.2. Eastern District (Mabopane/Brits) joint SACP-Unions political school
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 09H00
Venue: Mogajane Primary school
6.3. Mafikeng Party school
Date: 31/07/99
Time: to be confirmed
Venue: to be confirmed
6.4. Taung district (Vryburg areas)
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 09H00
Venue: Agriculture College
Launch of Khanyeza
Khanyeza hall
6.5. Klerksdorp
Date: 01/08/99
Time: 08H00
Venue: Umzimuhle recreation club
7. Mpumalanga Province
7.1. Witbank
Factory blitzes targeting industrial areas but starting in the morning at the taxi/bus
ranks and train stations
Date: 29/07/99
7.2. Middelburg
A workers solidarity march from Mhluzi township to Middleburg town
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 10H00
8. Northern Province
8.1. University of the North
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 10H00
Venue: University campus
8.2. Moholo-Phala district
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 13H00
Venue: Seleka Community Hall
8.3. Western district
Date: 29/07/99
Time: 14H00
Venue: Premier's offices in Potgietersrus
8.4. Sekhukhune and Madibong still to finalise on their respective venues
9. Eastern Cape
Focus on political education
9.1. East London
Main focus on mass meetings
Date: 31/07/99
Time: 11H00
Venue: East London City Hall
This major event shall be preceded by an early morning march against job losses to take
place in the city early.
The events mentioned here are only key activities, there are many such events taking place
and we did not mention them.
Issued by the SACP Department of Information & Publicity
E-Mail: sacp1@wn.apc.org
South African Communist Party Head Office
COSATU House
No. 1 Leyds Street - 7th Floor
Braamfontein 2001
Republic of South Africa
(Tel: 27 11 339-3621/2)
(Fax: 27 11 339-4244)
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