03 October 2002
Following the COSATU-led anti-privatisation protest action of 01 and 02 October, the South African Communist Party (SACP) calls on all partners in the ANC-SACP-COSATU Alliance including SANCO to prioritise intra-Alliance discussions to find effective ways of unifying the Alliance on our approach to restructuring state-owned enterprises. In the view of the SACP, this must be within the context of consolidating a democratic, developmental state as underlined by the recent ANC Policy Conference. In this regard, the SACP also welcomes the ANC Policy Conference decision that all restructuring of state assets at the national, provincial and local government levels must follow the provisions of the National Framework Agreement.
Specifically, the SACP calls for a collective alliance process in order to conduct a comprehensive review of the restructuring of public enterprises to date and Alliance discussion and agreement on a broad framework for the growth and development summit.
The significance of the anti-privatisation protest action needs to be measured less in terms of the disputed percentages of workers who supported it but more by the significant numbers of workers who were mobilised in support of these activities and in terms of the substance of the issues they raised. The protest actions, as the ANC Policy Conference also did, highlighted the general plight of workers and the poor in our country. Escalating food prices, and massive job losses all impact with particular severity on the workers and poor.
The SACP reiterates that these protest actions were not about challenging or undermining the legitimacy of our ANC-led government. The protest actions were about the defence and building of a strong public and parastatal sphere, and the limiting of the space in our society that is dominated by unelected, undemocratic profit-driven forces. In this way, the protest actions were about the strengthening and not weakening of the capacity of our democratic state.
The SACP strongly believes that it is possible and necessary to collectively achieve sufficient unity within the Alliance, and between Alliance partners and government, on how to approach state-owned enterprise (SOE) restructuring. The SACP remains convinced that substantive agreement already exists in some sectoral areas, and is eminently achievable in all other cases.
In the view of the SACP, SOE restructuring cannot, and should not be reduced to privatisation. The SACP supports a restructuring of SOEs aimed at ensuring that these important public assets are harnessed effectively to our overall growth and development objectives. Continued public ownership in which, however, SOEs are simply run on a commercial basis is equally unacceptable. As the SACP, we reiterate our call for the building of a strong, democratic, efficient and quality public sector.
In this context, the challenge confronting the Alliance is how to ensure strategies, policies and programmes that most effectively address the crisis of underdevelopment that afflict our country.
The Alliance April 2002 Ekurhuleni Summit charted a vision and broad programme for a Growth and Development Summit. It is imperative that we revive the spirit of Alliance unity that emerged from the Summit by learning the appropriate lessons out of our Alliance experiences over the last four years.
Firstly, no economic policy or developmental trajectory can be pursued successfully without a buy-in from the workers and the poor.
Secondly, the mobilisation of the workers and the poor is a critical weight in tilting the balance of forces in favour of a progressive developmental agenda for a developing country to advance a developmental agenda beneficial to its people. The ongoing and constant mobilisation of the workers and the poor is an important weapon in creating and building a relationship and unity between the people and government.
Thirdly, it is incumbent upon all Alliance partners to rise above factionalist labelling imputing conspiratorial motives as this is tantamount to the abdication of leadership. Instead we must come together and confront the very real issues and differences we have.
Finally, as an Alliance we have made major qualitative and quantitative advances through unity in action based on a common programme of action and political will. There is no single corner of our revolutionary Alliance that posses all the wisdom to take forward our struggle.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Information, Media and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel – 011 339 3621; Fax – 011 339 4244 Cell – 083 651 0271
Email – mazibuko@sacp.org.za