The South African Communist Party’s Political Bureau met recently to assess ongoing plans for the year 2000. The PB also used the opportunity to discuss a number of current issues of strategic concern and challenges for the year ahead.
These issues included:
Igoli 2002
The PB expressed its concern that alliance forces in greater Johannesburg continue to be divided around the vision and implementation of a programme to transform South Africa’s economic capital. If anything, positions have hardened, and the management of the GJMC and SAMWU are now further apart than ever.
In this context, the PB noted the 88th ANC anniversary speech delivered on January 8th
by ANC president, cde Thabo Mbeki. The January 8th speech identifies as a key strategic
task for the year the strengthening of “our links with the masses of our people on a
sustained and not a sporadic basis.” The same speech goes on to add that it is
imperative that we
“ensure that the masses of our people are mobilised to engage in active struggle and
do not become passive recipients of the
positive results of the process of progressive change”.
In addition the PB noted that privatisation as a means to pay debts that many of our
municipalities face is not a viable and
sustainable strategy.
Privatisation of municipal assets does not address the fundamental problems of
sustainability, redistribution and the reversal of
apartheid distortion and inequalities, which are the fundamental problems facing local
government
restructuring and transformation. The PB does recognise that the problem of viability of
many municipalities and other structural
distortions require a comprehensive strategies, and therefore our approaches should avoid
short-term solutions at the expense of sustainable strategies in the long-term.
We need to admit that Igoli 2002 has, so far, failed to inspire the great majority of Johannesburg residents into active mobilisation.
While appreciating the need for fiscal discipline and for effective management, the political vision that unites all alliance forces must remain the priority. The PB pledges the SACP, at all levels, to play a constructive and active role in the struggle to sustain our vision of metropolitan reconstruction and development. We must guard against the dangers of managerialist obduracy, and of narrow sectoralism that fails to see the bigger picture.
Conflict at the Volkswagen Uitenhage plant
The PB expressed its satisfaction at progress that seems to be made towards the
resolution of the conflict at the VW plant, and the planned return to work. We are
confident that this problem will soon be resolved. The VW problem is another lesson and a
warning. As has happened in the mining sector (with the so-called “Workers’
Mouthpiece”), there are opportunistic
elements that seek to divide organised workers with pseudo-radical demagoguery. Small
cliques seek to manipulate worker
concerns for their own individualistic or other sinister reasons. We commend the NUMSA
leadership for the manner in which they have settled the current crisis, and we call on
workers in all sectors to be vigilant about the dangers of reckless
opportunism.
Taxi Recapitalisation
Earlier on in the process, the SACP would have appreciated a wider strategic discussion
about the direction of government policy in terms of public transport. The SACP is
uncertain, for instance, whether the planned R3 billion of tax payers’ money (which
will go, basically, into the hands of private bus manufacturers and black taxi owners)
would not have been more effectively used in consolidating a publicly owned system of
public transport. However, the taxi recapitalisation process is now
well advanced, and we see it as a bold and imaginative programme to greatly improve the
transport of some 60 percent of South Africans. We agree with the Minister of Transport
that the process is irreversible, and we call on all relevant
sectors to contribute actively to its successful implementation.
In this respect, we note the recent misguided actions and demands of the National Taxi
Drivers Organisaton (NATDO). Calling for the preservation of the status quo is entirely
short-sighted. The present unroadworthy and ageing mini-bus fleet is a danger to all. The
often unregulated nature of the industry subjects drivers to long hours, and to dangerous
and inhumane
conditions of work.
We call on NATDO, and all other formations representing workers in the industry, to
engage with the recapitalisation process. Let us use this process to ensure that, in
exchange for the considerable benefits that will flow to many taxi owners, there will also
now be much better conditions and job security for drivers. The notion that the reduction
in the number of mini-buses will automatically translate into an equal reduction of
drivers only holds if we assume that one vehicle has to be driven, often for
17-hours and more a day, by a single driver.
Financial Services Board’s appeal board decision
The PB also noted with deep concern the recent decision of the appeal board of the FSB
to allow an employer access to the actuarial surplus of a pension fund. This decision sets
a dangerous precedent for all pension funds. The surplus on a fund should be for the
benefit of the fund’s members, and no-one else. Any other approach will encourage
grave irregularities, and may
(as the Business Day has noted) tempt “unscrupulous employers to start raiding their
workers’ piggy banks”. We call on government to urgently review the Pension Fund
Act to ensure that the funds of working people are not abused.
Poverty and Black economic empowerment
In line with the SACP’s programme of action of year 2000, that of building
people’s power for the eradication of poverty, the PB expressed concern at what seems
to be a new emerging morality within sections of the black middle class , that of defining
black economic empowerment as meaning the creation of “filthy rich black
millionaires”. Whilst as our society deracialises it
is inevitable that black middle and capitalist classes will expand, the main content of
black economic empowerment should be the eradication of poverty and addressing the
socio-economic conditions of the overwhelming majority of our people. This
“millionaire-mentality” threatens to erode some of the key values that have
informed and guided the mass of our people
in the struggle for national liberation. It is a mentality that needs to be combated as it
threatens to transform our struggle from eradication of poverty to that of
self-enrichment.
The PB further noted that whilst major advances have been made in addressing some of the basic needs of the working people and the poor, evidence shows that poverty is increasing amongst the 20% of the poorest people in our country. This requires a focused economic and social strategy to address poverty as the biggest threat to our democracy.
Contact SACP Dept. of Media, Information and Publicity
Mazibuko K. Jara Cell – 083 651 0271
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
E-mail: sacp1@wn.apc.org
02 February 2000