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Volume 13, No. 28, 17 July 2014 |
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Red Alert The SABC: When the people's trust relationship is breaking like an unreliable signal |
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By Cde Solly Mapaila
Last week, South Africa's governing alliance partners the ANC, SACP and COSATU expressed reservations on the appointment of Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng to the position of the public broadcaster the SABC's Chief Operations Officer (COO). On Friday 11 July, the SACP youth-wing, Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) came out in support of the main alliance partners. There are serious repercussions when contradictions occur between a deployed cadre and the governing Alliance.
Forcing the governing Alliance to oppose the decisions taken and to question the processes followed is totally unacceptable. Although it is necessary to allow deployed cadres to take decisions without being micromanaged, there are strategic positions for which appointments should never be made without consultation first, particularly in relation to the processes followed. The position of SABC COO is obviously in this category. This is the ANC's perspective as communicated by Spokesperson Comrade Zizi Kodwa.
Head of ANC communications sub-committee Comrade Lindiwe Zulu captures this well in an interview with the Mail & Guardian (11 July 2014). Confirming that the communications Minister Faith Muthambi did not attend the sub-committee's meeting convened to discuss among other issues ANC policies and the direction the department needed to follow, Zulu correctly says Ministers are expected to engage with ANC sub-committees and implement ANC policies and decisions.
In addition, there are established legal and corporate governance frameworks that the public broadcaster's board and the Communications Minster must follow. In addition, as the political head of the Communications Department and being in that position on the basis of an ANC electoral mandate, the Minister must follow the governing party's framework in executing such strategic functions. Moreover, we also have a Cabinet which must be factored in.
The ANC has a policy framework of meritocratic recruitment of personnel in the state and public entities. At the level of political leadership in the state, this includes alignment with the historic mission of the national democratic revolution and the vision of the Freedom Charter. This is critical in taking forward our second radical phase of transition - the immediate task facing the revolution.
The ANC Secretary-General is quoted by the Mail & Guardian (11 July 2014) as saying "For every appointment the most qualified person should be considered". The Employment Equity Act clarifies what this means. According to the legislation, a suitably qualified candidate possesses any or a combination of the following: relevant professional qualifications, experience, recognised prior learning and potential to perform the job in hand within a reasonable period. This employment law categorically states that all these factors must be reviewed when a decision is made, and that excluding a person from appointment solely on the grounds of lack of relevant experience constitutes unfair discrimination.
But what process does an organisation such as the SABC follow to select suitably qualified candidates?
On 25 November 2013, former Communications Minister Yunus Carrim, addressing the country through the Cape Town Press Club, said the position of SABC COO would be advertised pending settlement with former executive and sports administrator Mr Mvuzo Mbebe. Mr Mbebe was recommended for the position in 2007 but was never appointed. This led to a legal challenge in which the court of law granted an interdict against the appointment of a COO on a permanent basis pending the resolution of the matter.
It is clear that the appointment of Mr Motsoeneng without the post being advertised in terms of general employment law, best practice, SABC statutes and the former Communications Minister's public commitment is irrational and probably unlawful. The appointment constitutes unfair discrimination towards other suitably qualified candidates.
The announcement last week of the appointment and its endorsement by the Communications Minister came as a big surprise not only to the ANC but to the public as a whole. It was not transparent. And for some time there was no feedback as to whether the matter relating to Mbebe was finally resolved. Now we know it was not. There are serious legal implications considering the existing court interdict on the matter.
More seriously, the trust relationship between the government, the ANC, its alliance partners and most particularly the people as a whole is threatened. Remember the government committed to the public that after settlement of the dispute with Mr Mbebe in terms of the court interdict the position would be advertised. The government cannot be seen to say one thing but then do another in the opposite direction without public accountability and transparency.
If the negation of the government's own commitments to public transparency is allowed, then the people will find it difficult to believe in what the government says. Their trust in government will be eroded. If this trend continues there will come a point where the government will find it difficult to involve the people to endorse programmes, even if these are in their best interest.
Cde Solly Mapaila is SACP 2nd Deputy General Secretary
The SABC: a public broadcaster without public accountability
By Ismael Mohammed
Let us look at the nature and character of the society we seek to build, using the case of the public broadcaster the SABC.
A series of independent investigations into the SABC, including skills audits, have been conducted. There has been no prior accountability to the public, whether, and how, the findings and recommendations from these investigations were taken into account when Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng was appointed the Chief Operations Officer (COO).
A skills audit by the audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found among others that 60% of SABC executives did not meet the minimum requirements for strategic thinking and leadership in their work. Responding to the appointment of Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the ANC through its Secretary-General said "the most qualified person should be considered". This view would go a long way in addressing the weakness highlighted by PwC. However, Mr Motsoeneng disagreed and not only with the PwC, but the ANC as well.
On 6 February 2014, the SABC held a press briefing in Johannesburg on the PwC skills audit and competency assessment. The City Press (6 February 2014; online) quoted Mr Motsoeneng following the briefing, saying: "Your degrees can’t work for you. You need experience to do the work. When these people come with their degrees, they drain the same people [who are skilled but don’t have degrees]".
The poor standard of programming and quality of news are testimony to the fact that there are individuals with little formal or political education in strategic positions at the SABC.
For those watching SABC TV, once South African soaps and drama are finished we are presented with nothing but a hotchpotch of American junk. If you wake up during the night to watch TV you may think that you have been transported in your sleep to the USA. An American who is visiting South Africa might be surprised by the variety of outdated and frequently sub-standard American content. The news content is worse. International reporting is almost wholly derived from pro-Western news agencies. These news agencies serve imperialist interests, which is the prism that informs the reporting and images through which they portray Africa and other parts of the world.
Strategic thinking will definitely show that such content is destructive to local economic, artistic and cultural development; and it furthermore moulds a COLONISED national psyche, especially amongst our children. Any person involved in broadcasting in the public interest needs a thorough knowledge of international film, theatre, radio and TV, and their relationship to everyday life and the vision for national development. By the way international content does not refer only to what the USA and its allies produce but most importantly it refers to what we produce in Africa and other countries with similar experience. Broadcasting must serve the interest of national development; it must play a pivotal role in helping us shape and develop a better society.
But now, if we may ask, is there any school for experience?
To have experience, one must have exposure to the relevant position of responsibility. In order to facilitate this transparently, various graduate and on-the-job training programmes have been streamlined in our education and skills development framework: apprenticeships, internships, learnerships, experiential training and formal recognition of prior learning. Practical experience combined with theory combats empiricism, that is, practice without theory, which is as dangerous as theory without practice, dogmatism.
Now, did Mr Motsoeneng go through any of these programmes? What were the minimum entry requirements? What transparent recruitment process did he go through, let alone the fact that he does not have matric (Grade 12 certificate)? The Star (11 July 2014) reports that following the Public Protector’s findings in February 2014, Mr Motsoeneng’s lawyer, Mr Zola Majavu said "his client did not study for matric [Grade 12] as a whole" but "‘one or two’ subjects here and there, including supplementary exams".
But if people who have Matric (National Certificate or National Senior Certificate) and higher qualifications have no experience because they lack access to work opportunities and on-the-job training, how then does a person without any of these qualifications gain access to such opportunities and climb the ladder step by step in a public organisation such as the SABC up to and including the position of COO?
On 5 February 2014 following the PwC skills audit and competency assessment, New24 reported that according to the findings, SABC personnel do not trust the management team or the board; they question the ability of both; and demonstrate a negative attitude towards the organisation which could negatively influence its total corporate culture. How could this not be the case?
The SABC is actually facing a real threat of being hollowed out through outsourcing and tenders to become a milk cow for private interests. In this context, let alone the legal implications, eyebrows are raised when it is said an "independent law firm" did away with the recommendations of a report by the Office of the Public Protector, a Chapter 9 constitutional body.
Perhaps even more seriously, we have not heard of any feedback on how far remedial processes have gone following investigation into the SABC on corruption and maladministration by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Ismael Mohammed is an NGO activist based in Durban, his keen research interests is in bridging the digital divide, especially in Africa. He is now working on a project study of the analogue to digital television broadcasting migration.
Transform the SABC to combat false consciousness
By Thomas Harrison
My intention was to contribute a piece of between 400-800 words to Umsebenzi Online on SABC programming. I wrote non-stop and in fury until I had written more than 1000 words. Even then, there was far more than I wanted to say. So what you see here is a severely reduced article about a subject that impacts strongly on the consciousness of our people.
Recently the media has been full of stories and "Who would have guessed it?" opinion about the growth of Satanic cults and revolting rituals - some leading to death - in our schools.
"Where did it come from?" The people ask.
Then we see SABC programming: "Vampire Diaries", "Ghost Whisperer" and a number of other programmes of similar nature. How can we be surprised when impressionable minds are exposed to such unhealthy filth by a public broadcaster? How can we be surprised when some of our youth try to put in to practice what they have seen on the TV screen?
Even though we have local content, most of it is in the form of soaps based on the American model in which people who rarely have financial problems cheat and lie to each other and spend much of their unlikely lives in prison. After the soaps comes the jumble of insipid American comedies and films glorifying the US army. The very countries which backed our liberation movement in Southern African, Cuba and the Soviet Union are habitually portrayed as the enemy. US soldiers who in real life slaughtered huge numbers of the people of Vietnam are portrayed as heroes. Black American are rarely portrayed in a good light unless they took part in the slaughter of civilians in countries other than the USA for the further glory of imperialism. Otherwise blacks are portrayed as drug dealers in buggy clothes who speak in a mixture of grunts and debased English. These of course become role-model for our teenagers.
The SABC programmers seem completely unaware that Britain and Australia have produced films and TV series of quality which generally are far less ideologically loaded than those produced by the USA. As regards Africa they seem to know nothing about many excellent films produced in South Africa and throughout the continent. The recently deceased Nadine Gordimer made a series of very good films based on her excellent short stories about life under apartheid. We have never seen them on South African TV. Yet British TV which we normally see as reactionary has screened all of these films. Next door in Zimbabwe a number of entertaining films have been made over the years, for example Neria and Yellow Card. But these films seem to be unknown here in South Africa.
At least two series on the history of Africa have been available for some years. One is by Ali Mazrui and the other by Basil Davidson. Again, our programmers seem to be unaware of their existence.
When it comes to our own history it seems from watching SABC TV that Nelson Mandela liberated South Africa single handedly from his prison cell. We rarely hear of Charlotte Maxeke, except as the name of the Johannesburg Hospital. We seem to have forgotten that in 1919 she led women on to the streets to fight the pass laws. The founder of South African nationalism, the first person to call for a black republic with equal rights for everyone, James La Guma seems to be unknown. Is this because he was a coloured? Or is it because he was a communist? Or is it simply because of pure ignorance? Moses Kotane, the chief architect of the South African struggle, the man who led both the Communist Party and the ANC from near collapse in the 1930s and welded them into a fighting force is known only as a name. The role of the masses in our liberation struggle including on the release of Mandela from prison is less appreciated. UMkhonto we Sizwe is regarded with embarrassment. For some people in public broadcasting seem to be unaware that the negotiations leading to the democratic dispensation came as a result of the armed and mass struggles.
As we come to SABC news, especially TV, the story becomes far worse. We see "service delivery protest" regularly. But we rarely see people moving to their new RDP houses, receive electricity, water and sanitation. One can hardly spot the difference between the private broadcasters and their private attitudes towards the democratically elected government and this SABC news in which the voice of the opposition is frequently heard than that of the ANC which is confused with that of the government.
By far the worst is the presentation of foreign - and particularly African news. For instance the South African public is for the most part completely unaware of the US strategy to establish military bases throughout the continent under its Africom (Africa Command) programme and the implications this has for the sovereignty of Africa. Worse, when Libya was attacked by NATO and bombed by a coalition of eighteen countries led by the USA, Britain, France, and the reactionary monarch of Saudi Arabia for the purpose of stealing oil, the news was presented as the overthrow of dictatorship and the introduction of democracy. The fact that three months before the attack Libya was commended by the United Nations for having the highest Human Development Index (HDI) in Africa and the highest living standards, highest life expectancy on the continent was never reported. Neither was the systematic extermination of black Libyans by forces supported by the Barrack Obama administration including the entire black town of Tawergha ever reported. Much of the TV news reporting was simply cheering Western imperialism by simply copying and pasting what their news agencies were portraying. But what about follow up reporting? What has happened in Libya since then? The anarchy and the rot that have taken over are not being reported.
Thus SABC frequently produces news that is inaccurate - or at least highly selective; commentary which is rarely conducive to national development and programming and which is most definitely harmful to children. This has to change.
Thomas Harrison is an independent film and literary analyst based in Cape Town
Letter to SABC board chairperson, Comrade Zandile Ellen Tshabalala, 24 June 2014
By COSATU
Dear Comrade Tshabalala
The Congress of South African Trade Unions wishes to raise some important issues with the SABC Board of Directors, and we would welcome an opportunity to meet the Board to discuss them.
The SABC is by far the most important media structure in South Africa, with 4 TV and 18 radio stations. Its reach and coverage surpasses any other media institution and it should plays a central role in our democracy by keeping people well informed and giving them a voice.
This role is enshrined in both the Broadcasting Act and the SABC Charter, which summarises its mandate to "encourage the development of South African expression by providing, in South African official languages, a wide range of programming that:
- reflects South African attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity;
- displays South African talent in education and entertainment programmes;
- offers a plurality of views and a variety of news, information and analysis from a South African point of view;
- advances the national and public interest."
This vision was also well expressed by the ANC's 2012 Policy Document on Communications: "The SABC should act as a means to reflect the rich South African cultural heritage, provides voice to South Africans to participate in a democratic dispensation as well as acting as an important platform for community involvement, education and entertainment".
It should also focus on developing previously marginalised languages and our understanding of the lives of people in South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa and the world, empower us to play our role as active global citizens, deepen its accountability to its audiences and to the community, and be free of all direct party political, factional or commercial interests.
COSATU however believes that the SABC is still far from fulfilling this mandate. The underlying reason is that the SABC has been, and still is, plagued by seemingly intractable governance crises and financial problems at the level of the Board and management.
Governance
Since 2007 the SABC has had three Boards of Directors, two interim boards, six CEOs, resignations by board members, serious allegations of corruption and waste of resources.
The latest crisis hit the SABC in February 2014, with the resignation of its group CEO, Lulama Mokhobo, just two years into her five-year term. She was reported to be going because her situation has become untenable, as two centres of power have emerged, one in her own office and the other in the office of acting group chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
These leadership battles and the absence of any consistent leadership at the top filter down into the staff, whose often excellent work keeps being undermined by a lack of clear lines of command, combined with uncertainty about the future. All this ultimately impacts on the quality of programming.
COSATU backs the demand, by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Broadcast, Electronic Media and Allied Workers Union (BEMAWU), that the Minister of Communications urgently order a proper investigation and decisive action into allegations made by the Public Protector in her report titled "When governance and ethics fail" which has implicated members of the board, executives of the SABC and senior management in, inter alia, maladministration and abuse of power.
The federation agrees with these unions that action must be taken against individuals who, according to the Public Protector, admitted to wrongdoing, and that all appointments that were made without advertising the positions be reversed and disciplinary action be taken against individuals responsible.
COSATU also agrees with the two unions' demand for a full and proper investigation of the allegations by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in skills audit on SABC top and executive management. It found that, with the exception of a few, the executive of the SABC was found to be seriously lacking, in particular in respect of strategic skills which at their level are vital for any organisation to exist.
Finance
The second, even more fundamental, underlying problem is the SABC's financial situation. Almost 80% of its funding comes from advertising, which has forced the SABC, especially its TV stations, to base its programming overwhelmingly on commercial criteria - the potential revenue from advertisers and sponsors.
So although the corporation is a public institution answerable to Parliament, it is forced to operate as if it is a commercial entity. This has forced the SABC, especially its TV stations, to base its programming overwhelmingly on the potential revenue from advertising and sponsorship.
This problem is becoming even more serious following the deal, reportedly worth R500 million, with the private broadcaster Multichoice, which has enabled SABC to broadcast its 24-hour news channel on DSTV. This appears to be in contravention of the SABC's public service mandate and a partial privatisation of the public broadcaster, as the contract also gives Multichoice rights to share exclusive SABC archived footage of events of national importance.
On top of this problematic funding model, the situation has been made even worse by poor financial management, and constant allegations of corruption at both staff, management and even board levels, and outrageous waste of resources.
The Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, gave the worst possible audit opinion - a disclaimer - because he "could not obtain sufficient [and] appropriate audit evidence".
And in 2009 the government granted the SABC a R1.4-billion loan guarantee, on condition that they improve financial controls, but exactly the opposite has happened. In her annual report to Parliament outgoing SABC CEO, Lulama Mokhobo, admitted that it failed to meet performance targets attached to the loan guarantee and that the corporation was more than R600-million below its revenue targets.
COSATU welcomed the statement by the former Communications Minister, Yunus Carrim, that he had established a task team to strengthen financial controls at the SABC and that his department will also exercise far more strategic oversight over it, and we hope that his successor will follow this through.
Parliament and ICASA have however largely failed to rigorously perform their oversight roles, for example on local content quotas, allowing the public broadcaster to sink deeper into crisis.
Editorial policy
All these problems have undermined the SABC's ability to deliver on its mandate on editorial policy. COSATU believes that if it is to meet its obligations under its Charter and the Broadcasting Act, it must urgently resolve these governance and financial problems.
One area which on which COSATU feels particularly strongly is the huge disparity between the SABC's wide and detailed coverage of business news and issues compared to its miniscule coverage of labour issues - wages, working conditions, occupational health and safety, racism and sexism in the workplace, education and training of workers - all of which affect millions of SABC's viewers and listeners.
Our sole victory has been the Workers on Wednesday slot on Radio SAFM, which is very good but lasts for just half an hour a week on just one channel. There is no dedicated labour coverage at all on any of the TV stations.
Business on the other hand is covered extensively throughout every day on TV and radio channels, a policy which is clearly dictated by the much greater commercial sponsorship and advertising revenue for business shows.
To some extent this situation has been tackled with the launch of the new SABC News Channel, which gives more and better coverage than previously of news, current affairs, discussions, investigative reporting and documentaries, and it has broadcast more interviews with union representatives than previously.
The negative side however is that because it is only available on the DSTV pay channel only a small fraction of the SABC's viewers - the wealthiest ones - ever get to see it.
What makes it worse is that the News Channel appears to be monopolising the SABC's news and current affairs coverage; the three terrestrial channels now broadcast even fewer such programmes, which leads to a ‘dumbing down' of the content on offer to the majority of viewers.
The real danger is that a class divide is opening up - as in other areas of social life - with a two-tier structure, providing a good quality service for a small rich elite who subscribe to DSTV and poor service for the majority.
The problem of over-dependence on external funding is particularly serious with the TV Channels. Radio, which has been less dependent on advertising, has performed better than TV in complying with the vision outlined above, especially the use of all the national languages and interacting with the listeners in talk shows.
The TV stations, however, with their over-reliance on advertising have seriously failed to adhere to the vision, reflected in their poor coverage of labour issues, local communities, African languages, minority sports, local drama, documentaries and the diversity of our cultural, linguistic, political, religious, sporting and social heritage.
CWU and BEMAWU comment that "The SABC is in a sorry state, with repeats being broadcast, even on news, and millions of rands are pushed into new projects like the 24 hour news channel broadcast on a not free to air channel and only accessible to the few privileged who can afford DSTV subscription".
While the SABC ought to be the voice of the South African people, its over-dependence on advertising revenue and sponsorship has led broadcasting far too many cheap, imported sit-coms and soap operas, rather than encouraging local talent and production companies, and failed to reflect the interests and concerns of the majority of its viewers.
The federation fully supports the call by the Creative Workers Union of SA (CWUSA) - in line with the SABC's mandate to "reflect South African attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity" - for an increase in locally produced programmes, which will also create many new jobs.
As the ANC Policy Document says: "Compared to other countries such as Canada, Australia and Nigeria. South Africa has one of the lowest content obligations in the world. Many countries continue to impose foreign content and ownership limitations of the media. In its approach to this matter, the ANC maintains that the broadcasting policy review must prioritise national social and economic goals above private interests.
"In addition, the broadcasting policy must also provide a strategy to fast-track the local content development industry. The review of local content quotas must be aligned to this strategy."
We also condemn the closure of the SABC's Channel Africa, which has left its coverage of international issues severely depleted, and is therefore promoting a more parochial view of the world.
Government urgently needs to implement ANC policy on the SABC, as set out by its Mangaung Conference resolution, which said: "The government must, in line with the resolutions of the 52nd conference, increase its funding of the SABC. This must be implemented progressively over a reasonable period."
Government funding however cannot be an unconditional blank cheque, but ring-fenced and targeted towards public programmes on education, health, poverty eradication, rural development, crime prevention and other societal priorities, which are miniscule compared to entertainment-based programming.
COSATU expects the SABC and government to adopt this approach. Our demand for far more and much better coverage of labour issues, relative to business issues, will be an acid test of the broadcaster's willingness to take these demands seriously.
Yours comradely
COSATU General Secretary Cde Zwelinzima Vavi
A trade union cannot be a political leader of working class struggle: No amount of the siren songs from the headquarters of our enemy can substitute the political leadership role of our party in working class struggle!
By Phatse Justice Piitso
I take this opportunity to convey my revolutionary greetings to the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers and all our shop stewards gathered here today. I am indeed humbled to be with you during this important rare occasion of the Eliyah Bahayi Brigades political education school.
My profound appreciation goes to the leadership of the NUM and the SACP for affording me the opportunity to participate in this great festival of ideas. A political education school is the greatest of all festivals of ideas.
I am equally inspired that the political education school is taking place in such a glorious and prestigious institution, dedicated after one of our outstanding and heroic revolutionary leaders of our national democratic revolution, Cde Eliyah Barayi. We thank you much for dedicating such an important institution and a brigade of our revolution after this colossal of our people.
Cde Eliyah Barayi belongs to the category of the most extraordinary leaders of our national liberation movement, our vanguard party and our revolutionary trade union movement. His contribution to the cause of the struggles of our people for freedom and equality will forever decorate the beautiful chapters of our history books.
My task today is to present to the Eliyah Barayi Brigades political education school one of our most important theoretical questions on the political leadership of our vanguard party and its role in the struggles of the working class.
I am however confident that the tried and tested leadership of the NUM gathered here will take this most important historic debate to a higher pedestal. The NUM is the backbone of the revolutionary trade union movement in the history of the struggle of the working class movement in our country.
Your leadership experiences and lessons over the years will concur with me that a political education school is a nucleus and therefore an essential life of any revolutionary organisation. Political education school produces a calibre of new cadres with the clarity of our ideological and political forms of our struggle.
Political education school is a platform which affords us with the opportunity to hatch revolutionary ideas necessary to construct the future of humanity of peace, freedom and dignity. A future free of oppression and exploitation, a future free of poverty, disease and underdevelopment, and an ideal future of socialism and classless society.
Our party is the vanguard and the only political leader of the struggles of the working class. It is the only revolutionary organ that can infuse the working class with the necessary capacity to lead our struggle to its logical conclusion.
The working class is the most resolute, disciplined and organised class in the struggles of the people. When mobilised and infused with far-sighted, revolutionary class consciousness and struggle, it is the only class that has the capacity and power to liberate itself and the people from oppression and exploitation.
Karl Marx, the author of our theoretical guide, the Communist Manifesto, says the following about the nature and character of the proletariat class:
"of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and fınally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product".
We have to reject decisively the counter revolutionary view that seek to suggest that the working class can carry out the task of our revolution without the political leadership of a communist party. We need to be clear that every class struggle is a political struggle.
Political power can only be seized, organised and led by a political party, not the other way round. No trade union movement or an imperialist sponsored protest movement, can assume the political leadership role of the struggle of the working class into our socialist future.
Throughout the history of our struggle, revisionists and opportunists have made futile attempts to undermine the political leadership role of the communist party as the vanguard of the struggles of the working class. The question of the counter revolutionary forces seeking to substitute the leadership role of the party should be understood from this context.
The South African working class must rise to defeat the wave of narrow minded chauvinism which seeks to substitute the political leadership role of our party and the entire revolutionary movement, over the struggle of the working class. It must be clear that the tasks of our national democratic revolution and our transition to socialism, cannot be performed by forces of counter revolution.
We have to defeat all of these tendencies in their appearance and form. We have to defeat them in all fronts, either in the form of the so called united front and a movement for socialism, AMCU, the economic freedom fighters or any other imperialist sponsored counter revolutionary insurgents. The only common feature between right-wing fundamentalism and pseudo anarchists is that they serve the same master.
We must prove to them that no amount of anti-communist tendencies from whatever quarter can stop our party from playing its historic role as the political leader of the working class. The interests of counter revolutionary forces are not consistent with the interests of the working class struggle.
Therefore our struggles against opportunism and counter revolution is inseparable from the revolutionary struggles of the working class. Without a protracted and resolute struggle against all these counter revolutionary tendencies, there will be no victory of the working class struggle.
Our foremost task is to understand that no revolution succeeds without a struggle; that no revolution can proceed without powerful enemies from within and without. No revolution could liquidate the forces of imperialism and neo colonialism without a counter offensive.
The emerging trend today in our country is that revisionists and opportunists are contesting the left platform. They are mastering the art of abusing our revolutionary theory with most savaged malice, with most furious and unscrupulous campaigns against our revolutionary alliance led by our national liberation movement the ANC and its leadership.
Lenin says the following about revisionists and opportunists:
"Certain individuals amongst the present social chauvinists leaders may return to the proletariat, but the social chauvinists or opportunists' trend can never disappear or return to the revolutionary proletariat.
Revisionists and opportunists factions, as agencies of the bourgeoisie become more and more hostile to Marxism Leninism with the sharpening class struggles and the development of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the toiling masses.
Revisionists and opportunists are sworn enemies of Marxism and yet they swear by the name of Marx. You cannot prevent them from doing so any more than a trading firm can be prevented from using any label, any sign, and any advertisement it pleases.
We must relentlessly tear off their masks, discredit them before the people and leave them no place to hide anywhere in the world. Winning the masses is the key to the struggles against revisionism and opportunism.
It is our duty, if we wish to remain socialists, to go down lower and deeper to the real masses. This is the whole meaning and the whole content of our struggle against revisionism and opportunism.
If we want to win the battle against social traitors and opportunism, this political line must be followed in all spheres of our struggles without exception, and then we shall win the masses.Our battle with revisionism and opportunism is a protracted and tortuous one. As long as the capitalist class and imperialism exist, they will always try to train new ones as their agents in the communist movement."
Vladimir Lenin formulates the indispensable role of our revolutionary theory and the leadership role of the vanguard in the following way:
"the starting point of any revolution rests on the fundamentals of a revolutionary theory and a revolutionary working class party. In its struggle for power the proletariat has no other weapon but the organization, the proletariat can, and invariably will, become invincible force only through its ideological unification on the principle of Marxism being reinforced by the material unity of organisation.
the only guarantee that the revolutionary organisation of the working class will not lose sight of the strategic objective of socialism or lose its identity as an independent party, is its adherence to and reliance upon Marxism. The role of the vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory."
Lenin further elaborates on the significance of a revolutionary theory in the struggle of the working class as follows:
"Our revolutionary scientific theory is the weapon to make us judge and define the methods of struggle correctly. That is a weapon that helps us analyse and understand correctly the cause of development of human society at every moment, to analyse and understand correctly every turning point of society and to carry out the revolutionary transformation of society."
Our revolution can only be led by the most advanced contingent of the revolutionary class. A detachment of men and women guided by the scientific Marxist Leninist revolutionary theory.
The fundamental point is that the communist party is the vanguard and the political leader of the struggles of the working class. It is constituted by the most advanced detachment of the section of the working class.
The revolutionary struggle of the working class in our country is part of a worldwide revolutionary process whose main strategic objective is the transition from capitalism to socialism. Therefore the primary political task of our party, is to be part of the world revolutionary process of the transition from capitalism to socialism.
Our supreme goal under the political leadership of our vanguard party, is to achieve the highest form of human society which is communism. The creation of a classless society, a communist society based on the foundations of equality.
Therefore to equal this historic task, the leadership of the party must be comprised of better students, schooled in the scientific revolutionary Marxist Leninist theory. They must be committed revolutionaries ready to lead the working class, and our society in general, into our better future, the future of freedom of all of humanity, the future of socialism.
Chapter two of the Communist Manifesto says the following about the nature and character of communists and proletariats:
"The Communists, therefore, are, on the one hand, practically the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others.
On the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the lines of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.
The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat".
We need to comprehend the theoretical thrust that the communist party and the trade union movement are both working class formations. But their place and role to the immediate and long term struggles is not and cannot be the same.
A trade union movement is a mass organisation of the working class. It represents the interests of the workers at the point of production.
Its struggles is essentially about the immediate improvement of the working and living conditions of its members. It has never assumed a role of a political leader of the working class struggles.
But a trade union movement equally plays a significant role in the worldwide struggles against the capitalist oppression and exploitation.
In the Communist Manifesto Karl Marx formulates the character of a trade union in the following profound way:
"Trade Unions are the schools of socialism. It is in trade unions that workers educate themselves and become socialists, because under their very eyes the everyday struggle with capital is taking place."
This is why we need to understand that a trade union consciousness will only arise spontaneously at the point of production. The reason why the political leadership role of the vanguard party becomes the transformation of the trade union consciousness into revolutionary political consciousness.
It is also important that we understand the most important theoretical question of the dialectical relationship between the class content of our national struggle and the national content of our class struggle. It is important that we understand the relationship between the national, class and gender questions in the dichotomy of our national democratic revolution.
Our theoretical thrust is that our national democratic revolution is about the construction of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. That the immediate objectives of our national democratic revolution is about the liberation of the African people in particular and the black people in general.
The African National congress is a revolutionary national liberation movement. It is not a narrow chauvinist's nationalist movement as our detractors would want to define it.
Its posture and character is inspired by the scientific theoretical perspective of the international working class movement. The ANC is an anti-imperialist and anti-colonial national liberation movement.
Throughout the century of its existence, our movement has always being part of the worldwide struggle of the working class solidarity and internationalism. We have always understood that our struggle for national liberation is part of the struggle of the oppressed people of the world against imperialism and colonial domination.
The 1928 plenary session of the Comintern instructed all the communist parties of the world to work hand in glove with the embryonic nationalist movements in the colonies and semi colonies. This approach was premised on the theoretical perspective that the liberation of the millions of the people in the colonies and semi colonies was a necessary precondition to the victories of the working class struggle.
With regard to the specific South African conditions, the Comintern characterised our country as a British dominion of a special type. The plenary called for the establishment of a native republic with full and equal rights of all races.
The call for the establishment of a native republic became a basis for the theoretical formulation of the essence of our national democratic revolution. This was a basis upon which our revolutionary alliance understood the relationship between the national, class and gender questions.
Therefore our theoretical formulation that the ANC is the leader of our national democratic revolution remains to be consistent even today with the resolutions of the historic plenary of the Comintern on the question of the colonies and semi colonies in 1928. We are the only communist party that has lived true to this historic resolution of the important gathering of the world communist movement ninety years ago.
The national democratic revolution becomes a minimum programme and the last phase of our struggle towards the establishment of our socialist society. We therefore need to derive a deeper understanding of the meaning of the second phase of our transition for the radical transformation of the South African socio economic landscape.
The struggles for a socialist South Africa demands a correct scientific and revolutionary understanding of the relationship between national oppression and exploitation. Our strategic objective is to fight for the victory of the national democratic revolution.
Therefore the main task of our vanguard party in the present phase of our struggle is the achievement of our national democratic revolution. Our immediate task is to consolidate on the unity and cohesion of our national democratic revolution.
Counter revolutionary offensive is blaming our revolutionary movement for the historic and inevitable challenges of poverty, disease and underdevelopment tearing our society apart. Counter revolution is blaming our own democratic government for the deepening world capitalist economic crisis which is not of our making.
Our democratic government is blamed for the slowing world economic growth, declining economic production, rising prices and living standards, mass unemployment and poverty and the growing inequality between the people which is the distinct feature of the present capitalist crisis.
Counter revolution does not comprehend the scientific facts that every historic moment is informed by concrete material conditions. It is time that we all expose these counter revolutionary distortions of our scientific revolutionary theory.
The participation of the working class in the present transition for socio economic transformation of our country is not conditional on other strata of our society accepting socialism as the future. The working class struggle is not only confined to our immediate struggles for the achievement of socialism.
We need to defeat the new dominant tendency of counter revolutionary forces appropriating the slogans of our revolution. We need to work hard to ensure that there is unity and cohesion of our revolutionary forces.
The immediate role of our vanguard party is to work for the unity of the trade union movement and the working class in general. We have to do so by drawing into its own ranks the most advanced elements from the leadership of the trade union movement.
Throughout history our party has been the backbone of the struggles of the South African working class movement. Our party has a proud unbroken record of a rich and heroic historical relations with the trade union movement.
Our party has laid a great foundations for a revolutionary trade union movement in our country. Many of our outstanding leaders devoted their entire life in the trenches consolidating the unity and hegemony of our trade union movement.
Today we take the opportunity of this rare historic occasion of the Eliyah Barayi Brigades political education school, to salute the sons and daughters of our soil. We salute many of our unsung heroes and heroines who volunteered their lives in the cause of our struggle for national liberation.
We salute Cde Bill Andrews, J B Marks, Johannes Nkosi, Ray Alexandra, Thabo Mufutsanyane, Moses Kotane, Vuyisile Mini, Flag Boshielo, Moses Mabhida, Walter Sizulu, Govan Mbeki, Peter Nchabeleng, Banny Molokoane, Steven Dlamini, Lawrance Phokanoka, Mzala Khumalo, Marks Shope, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, John Gomomo, Mbuyisela Ngwenda, Ncumisa Nkondlo, Alinah Rantsoalase, Thembi Nabe, and Stella Mabitje Segwale.
Lastly, in the communist manifesto Karl Marx and Frederick Engels declare that the working men have no country. Marx repeats again in the Gotha programme of 1875 that the class struggle is only national in form but not in content. He says that thou it takes place within the framework of a national state, it was essentially international in character.
The point being that workers everywhere have common interests against owners of capital. Hence the slogan working men of the world unite, you have nothing to lose, but your chains.
I thank you
Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.
