8 February 2008
The SACP welcomes the main thrust of President Mbeki’s State of Nation Address to Parliament this morning. The President correctly noted that the year ahead will be a challenging one for our country. In addition to our persisting problems of poverty, inequality, high levels of unemployment and violent crime, the President correctly highlighted new challenges, particularly in regard to spiralling food prices and our energy crisis. The President also alluded briefly to external challenges, which include the possibility of a recession in the US, the result partly of the unrestrained speculative activity of the major banks and the unsustainable levels of US consumption for which the rest of the world is forced to pay.
There are several specific issues raised in the State of Nation speech that the SACP strongly endorses, including:
The Apex projects, including a range of industrial policy measures are generally welcomed by the SACP, but we believe that they still lack a clearly transformative agenda. There is still a lack from the side of government of sufficient appreciation of the problematic nature of the persisting capitalist accumulation path in our country. This is particularly the case in regard to our response to the energy crisis.
President Mbeki is quite correct to assert that our energy crisis is also an opportunity to lay down the “first building blocks”, as he put it, of an alternative and sustainable energy policy. However, we are not sure if the full implications of such a changed policy are fully grasped. Senior cabinet ministers continue to insist, for instance, that we remain committed to an aluminium smelter at Coega. These smelters are energy guzzlers and they produce very little, if any, up- or downstream job creation within our own country. The energy crisis and our responses must directly address the transformation of our excessively export- and import-dependent accumulation path, with much greater attention to self-reliance, job creation, and sustainability.
Government’s response to the energy crisis has also, correctly, understood the importance of mobilising all sectors in South Africa around energy conservation measures. The SACP believes that this task of popular mobilisation cannot be left to government alone, and we pledge to work closely with our Alliance partners in mobilising to build a popular movement for energy conservation and energy policies that prioritise the needs of the majority.
The State of Nation address correctly located the specific issue of the location of the Directorate of Special Operations within a broader context – the need for a major revamping of the entire criminal justice system, ensuring much greater integration of all components in the fight against crime. The fight against organised and white collar crime is of great importance. Clearly the SACP believes that our state should have the capacity to deal effectively with the crimes of the bourgeoisie. But an exclusive focus on the location and fate of the Scorpions can distract us from addressing the crimes that plague millions of ordinary, working class South Africans. The SACP believes that, apart from revamping the state criminal justice system, we must also place additional emphasis on popular mobilisation, community police forums and street committees in the struggle against crime.
President Mbeki should be commended for the work that he has devoted to bringing together the negotiating teams of the ZANU-PF ruling party and the MDC opposition, and in securing agreements. In this regard our President has fulfilled the letter of his SADC mandate. However, we regret to say that we cannot agree with the President when he says that all that now remains to be done is “procedural matters” – that is, the implementation of the agreements. Considering that the election date has been unilaterally declared by the Zimbabwean government for the end of March the implementation of key constitutional, media and law and order amendments directly related to the possibility of holding reasonably free and fair elections can hardly be considered merely “procedural”.
Issued by the SACP.
For information Contact: Malesela Maleka (SACP Spokesperson) @ 082 226 1802