17 February 2018, Johannesburg
The South African Communist Party conveys its revolutionary greetings to Comrade Rebecca Kotane on the occasion of her 106th birthday anniversary and wishes her further strength. Mme Kotane reached 106 years of age on 12 February 2018. The revolutionary working class of our country, the main motive force that fought against colonial domination and its version of apartheid, is proud of Mme Kotane`s contribution in this struggle for liberation and social emancipation. The SACP greatly appreciate her milestone and wisdom of 106 years in the ongoing struggle against capitalist exploitation and imperialist domination, as it is with recpect to the national democratic revolutionary transformation to eliminate centuries-old colonial legacy and its primary economic injustice.
Our Party, the Party of Moses Kotane, Mme Kotane`s late husband, the Chief Architect of our liberation Alliance and struggle for liberation and social emancipation, is still following his 1934 ideological intervention from Cradock. We have grounded, deepened and continue to elaborate, both in theory and practice, Marxism-Leninism in the concrete conditions of South Africa while maintaining our allegiance to the international character of our struggle for universal working class emancipation. Since Kotane`s 1934 intervention from Cradock and its further articulation in the course of our struggle, our Party can rightly be characterised, ideologically, as Marxist-Leninist and Moses Kotane Intervention.
The SACP is proud both of Mme Kotane`s contribution as a revolutionary in her own right to our liberation and social emancipation struggle, and for sharing her husband`s time with the Communist Party, the South African working class, the oppressed and democrats of all races and sexes united in the fight against oppression and exploitation. We thank Mme Kotane for being part of the generation of revolutionary activists that adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955 at the Congress of the People!
Like the families of Mandela, Sisulu, Kathrada, Tambo and countless others that contributed immensely to the leadership of our movement, recognition of the history of Mme Kotane`s revolutionary life and times will be incomplete without recognition of the role played her husband, our Party`s longest serving General Secretary. Comrade Moses Kotane also served as the Treasurer General of the African National Congress. Conversely, recognition of the leadership role played by Comrade Moses Kotane in our struggle for liberation and social emancipation will be incomplete without recognition of Comrade Rebecca Kotane`s contribution and sacrifices.
It is the SACP applying Marxism-Leninism and Moses Kotane Intervention that became the first, expressing a deep concern about corruption, which had become widespread, to put forward in South Africa the characterisation of and expose corporate capture of our state. The SACP is thankful to all South Africans across all walks of life who accepted the correctness of the analysis and stood up, jointly and severally, to fight against corporate state capture.
Marching in this vanguard line, together as South Africans, we have achieved a breakthrough. This is symbolised by the resignation of President Jacob Zuma, a friend of the Guptas, the business partners of his son, after the ANC recalled him and moved to push a motion of no confidence against him in Parliament. The Police have raided their residence in Johannesburg, and it is clear that they have disappeared from South Africa. They have been declared fugitives. They either must come back or be arrested and brought back to South Africa to be held to account. The wealth that they accumulated through state capture or other forms of corruption must be confiscated, restored to the nation, and they must face imprisonment.
In addition to criminal investigation authorities at last visibly being seen taking action, the State Capture Commission that the SACP was the first to call for has at last now been established but not without a protracted struggle. The process of investigation and prosecution by the authorities requires deepening, society-wide, mobilisation to guard against contamination by the forces of corporate state capture and venality. To this end the SACP is calling on South Africans from all walks of life to unite and forge the broadest possible patriotic front.
The SACP says: Let us unite in defence of our country`s Constitution and to deepen the development of our democracy to its full potential. Let us unite to solve the problems of the people, the systematic problems of class, race and gender inequality; uneven development between urban and rural areas and within urban areas between suburbs, townships and slumps; and social insecurity in our communities and society as a whole. The SACP will do its best to lead this effort in honour of Mme Kotane`s contribution to our struggle for liberation and social emancipation.