SACP Central Commitee Meeting Starts Today

15th May 2003

The South African Communist Party will dedicate its Central Committee (CC) meeting to the late Comrade Walter Sisulu. This is the second CC meeting for the year, 2003 (4th Plenary Session of the CC since the SACP's 11th Congress).

The CC meeting, starting at 14h00 today, will pay a special tribute to Walter Sisulu as an ANC leader, SACP leader, revolutionary and hero of heroes.

The CC meeting will be concluded tomorrow, Friday, 16 May in order for SACP CC members to join mourners at the night vigil and the funeral of Walter Sisulu.

PRESS CONFERENCE

The CC will release its statement through a Press Conference to be held as follows:
DATE - Sunday, 18 May 2003
TIME - 11h00 - 11h45
VENUE - SACP Head Office, 3rd Floor, COSATU House, 1 Leyds Street, corner Biccard, Braamfontein, Johannesburg

In its agenda, the CC will discuss the following:

• Political Report from the SACP Secretariat
• The Growth and Development Summit and the strategic input of the SACP into the economic policy debate
• Report of the Financial Sector Campaign (Campaign to Make Banks Serve the People)
• Review of the Chris Hani 10th Anniversary Memorial Month

The Political Report covers the following issues:

• The current international situation
• A 10 year vision for the working class - targets, tasks and goals
• The TRC, reparations and private capital - the report argues South African private capital is definitely not off the hook since it has been indicted for, and found culpable of, collusion in gross human rights violations associated with apartheid opprion and exploitation. In the view of the SACP, the only real debate is how to respond to this indictment.
• SACP position on Zimbabwe - the Political Report proposes an SACP delegation to Zimbabwe in order to "intensify our engagement with major political and civil formations in a complementary process existing initiatives whilst simultaneously informing ourselves of the realities on the ground and networking with socialist, working class oriented forces in Zimbabwe"
• SACP position on Swaziland - the Political Report calls for increased solidarity action and political pressure on Swaziland as "last week's detention of the PUDEMO General Secretary as an indication of the deteriorating situation in Swaziland"
• HIV/AIDS - the report makes proposals on how the SACP can intervene on the National HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan and an SACP Programme of Action on HIV/AIDS

Regarding Swaziland, Zimbabwe and the SADC as a whole, the Political Report states that " The relationship between the Party with political and other formations in SADC region should be strengthened to ensure that anti-imperialist, progressive political positions can be encouraged. The entire SADC region is not immune from deteriorating into a similar situation as Zimbabwe, and the forging of stronger links with working class formations/networks is of absolute strategic necessity, particularly for our Party ."

In reviewing the Chris Hani Month, the Political Report states that "Through recounting what Hani stood for, we reinvigorated in our people the best of the traditions of our movement and our Party... These are the values and traditions we need to foster, even more so now when the temptations of patronage, careerism, opportunism and corruption are very real threats facing a movement in power. Most importantly we highlighted the importance of service, loyalty and complete dedication to the goals of our movement and Party, and the primacy of the movement over any other deployments. It was, as many of our cadres and ordinary people said, a true political 'revival'!"

The report on the Financial Sector Campaign indicates massive progress achieved in NEDLAC negotiations to implement agreements reached at the August 2002 NEDLAC Summit on the Financial Sector. A full and separate statement will be issued in this regard.

CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information & Publicity
South African Communist Party
3rd Floor, COSATU House, 1-5 Leyds Street
Braamfontein, 2017, Republic of South Africa
Tel: 27 11 339-3621/2, Fax: 27 11 339-4244,Cell: 083 651 0271
Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za