07 October 2002
Tomorrow, the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Blade Nzimande, and the MEC for Welfare in the Gauteng Province, Angie Motshekga, will launch the SACP Red October Campaign for 2002 under the slogan “Red October 2002: The Struggle for Social Security Rights and Food Security”. This Campaign is in support of the campaign launched by the Minister of Social Development in the last week and the Letsema Campaign focus on
The launch will be held as follows:
DATE : Tuesday, 08 October 2002
TIME : 10h30 – 13h00
VENUE : Thokoza Auditorium (next to Thokoza Police Station)Ekurhuleni
The launch will include a People’s Forum in which Thokoza residents will be talking about the issues and problems they face in the social security system. This will be followed by speeches from Blade Nzimande and MEC Angie Motshekga, and visits to the Thokoza Old-Age Home.
Through, the Red October campaign, the SACP will highlight the following
Unemployment is approaching nearly 40 percent in our country. 61 percent of Africans live in poverty. With the HIV/AIDS pandemic, many of the poorest households find themselves even more vulnerable and impoverished. In the last 12 months, food inflation was 18% compared to the overall inflation rate of 11,6%. Facts like these make a comprehensive social security system a matter of life and death for millions of South Africans.
From this Red October campaign, and on an ongoing basis, SACP structures and activists, working together with our allies, social movements and community based organisations will go door-to-door, hold community meetings and factory lunch-hour meetings, and visit pension pay-out points, and Social Development and Home Affairs offices. We will make communities aware of their social security rights. We will assist, where we can, those who need help. We will listen to problems, and identify issues that must be changed. In particular, we will seek to assess the performance of privatised pension pay-out systems. The SACP believes that a publicly-owned Postbank network should be the preferred social security delivery system. We will seek to test our belief through practical, on-the-spot assessments.
Through this Red October Campaign, the SACP will make its contribution to the debate on the overhaul of our social security system and the need for strong and decisive action on food prices.
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