Umsebenzi Online Volume 24, Number 3, 7 July 2025
Red AlertThe Freedom Charter, NDR and the struggle for socialism |
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Lehlohonolo Kennedy Mahlatsi
This year marks the 70th anniversary since the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the epoch-making Congress of the People at Kliptown. The Charter, embodying the people's aspirations and pinpointing the way forward, still offers a vision of a fuller and better life to all the people of South Africa. Since the democratic breakthrough of 1994 there has been an endeavour to advance the National Democratic Revolution and the realisation of the demands enshrined in the Freedom Charter.
This endeavour was compromised by the contestation of class forces and other factors. The South African democratic breakthrough occurred at a time when neoliberal triumphalism was at its high point globally. Inevitably, neoliberal ideas impacted the new state and its programmes. The active role of the state in the mainstream economy was seen to be largely confined to creating a macroeconomic climate favourable to investors and capitalist-driven growth.
The Charter is not a socialist document, but its demands are not inconsistent with an advance towards socialism. The demands advanced by the Freedom Charter in the socio-economic system, and the changes it proposes, do not in themselves imply the complete undermining of the system of capitalism. For instance, the Charter provides that all people: "shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and enter all trades, crafts and professions. This means the opening of the ground, for the first time in the history of South Africa, for a wide and non-racially orientated development of commodity production.
The Freedom Charter recognises the linkage between capital and discriminatory inequality, to the extent of calling for the return of the country's national wealth to the people, the nationalisation of the “mineral wealth beneath the soil”, and public ownership of the banks and monopoly industry.
These objectives can hardly be considered a socialist programme based on public ownership, a planned economy, workers' management and the payment of wages according to the value of the workers' contribution to the total product. Even the demand that the “restriction of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all land re-divided among those who work it, to banish famine and land hunger,” does not necessarily propose the nationalisation of the land under state control.
While proposing to restrict the operations of the monopoly capitalists, the Freedom Charter does not contemplate the abolition of that capitalist system as such. The weaknesses and failures of the land reform programme and other socio-economic demands entrenched in the Freedom Charter are to be found primarily in the neoliberal turn in the ANC government, along with considerable policy confusion, institutional weaknesses, and, often, corruption.
While it is conceded that the Charter is not a programme of the working class alone, it nevertheless primarily reflects its interests. Its clauses address much more profoundly the working-class interests than would be the case with any document. Nelson Mandela wrote in 1956 that “the Charter is more than a mere list of demands for democratic reform. It is a revolutionary document precisely because the changes it envisages cannot be won without breaking up the economic and political set-up of present South Africa. It is a revolutionary document indeed because its implementation is impossible without the complete dismantling of the whole state of white supremacy and the political and economic foundation on which it is founded.”
The National Democratic Revolution (NDR) is the necessary vehicle to realise the demands of the Freedom Charter. However, the neoliberal trajectory, spearheaded by successive ANC governments and their different factions, which advocates for bourgeois reformism instead of revolutionary democracy, has not only betrayed the working class but has either miscarried or aborted the NDR and, by implication, the Freedom Charter.
The NDR and class struggle interact, blending at many points and fructifying each other, and the two revolutions co-exist, operating side by side and are deeply intertwined. If the working class is to be the leading force for socialism, it must establish its role by playing a leading part in all the immediate struggles, whether of a class or a national character. The working class leadership role has been marginalised, and the post-apartheid neoliberal development path is leaning more towards the market.
The SACP 5th Special National Congress (2024) correctly observed that in our country, as a result of neoliberal policies, the colonial and apartheid structure of the economy remains intact, as demonstrated by the fact that the means of production and economic power remain concentrated in white capitalist hands and the country continues to be confronted with an increase in unemployment, poverty and deepening inequality. The Congress emphasised that the Freedom Charter and the SACP programme offer a revolutionary framework prioritising state-led industrialisation, public ownership, wealth redistribution and environmental justice.
The narrow BEE has been introduced essentially to accommodate the elites who provided black cover for white capital and engage in conspicuous consumption, simultaneously representing collusion in the impoverishment of the masses. BEE measures have been used adroitly by South African monopoly capital as a means of regaining its influence and foothold within ruling circles after the demise of white minority rule.
The Freedom Charter envisages a people-centred and people-driven government. The former refers to delivery, centred on the needs of the people. The latter refers to the masses, through their democratic organs, driving the process. The negative impact of post-apartheid economic policies on employment and poverty, on both inequality and industrialisation, has been on display almost from the beginning, and nothing has been done to change course. These polices have been harmful to most of humanity and put the state solely in the service of private capital. Neoliberalism is not a development model, and in spite of its failures in all fields, including addressing the demands enshrined in the Freedom Charter, it continues to be imposed unilaterally and undemocratically.
Cde Mahlatsi is a member of the Free State PEC
Commemorating Imam Khomeini and the Iranian revolution*
Reneva Fourie
Imam Khomeini, a fervent opponent of neo-colonialism and imperialism, brought about revolutionary relations between South Africa and Iran. The former Shah was an ardent defender of apartheid South Africa, supplying up to 90 per cent of the country 's oil at the time. Imam Khomeini, upon assuming power, ended that energy source, terminated political ties with apartheid South Africa, and provided support to the liberation movement. It was, therefore, an honour to represent the SACP at the 36th anniversary of the passing of Imam Ruhollah Khomeini.
The commemoration of the leader of Iran 's 1979 Islamic Revolution took place at a time when Iran was being severely threatened with war by the Israeli Zionist regime. The event brought tens of thousands from across Iran and abroad to the mausoleum that houses his shrine just outside Tehran. The atmosphere was charged with a powerful blend of reverence and defiance – respect for the enduring teachings and legacy of Imam Khomeini, coupled with resistance against ongoing external attempts to reshape Iran 's revolutionary values and direction. These feelings were understandable given current geopolitical tensions, especially with the rising aggression against the country, ongoing concerns over sanctions, nuclear policy, and regional conflict.
The ceremony began with poetry honouring Imam Khomeini, followed by an address from Iran 's current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He outlined key aspects of Imam Khomeini 's political philosophy and reflected on the historical trajectory of the Islamic Republic since the revolution. Khamenei 's remarks were both retrospective and forward-looking, addressing challenges past and present and drawing lessons that, he suggested, could be relevant beyond Iran 's borders.
One of the central themes of the address was the intellectual foundation of revolutions. Ayatollah Khamenei emphasised that while revolutions often begin with emotional momentum driven by public dissatisfaction, sustainable change requires a deeper, unifying intellectual framework based on clearly defined principles. He credited Imam Khomeini with providing such a framework that offered both purpose to the Iranian revolution and resilience in the face of the opposition to it.
During the Cold War, the world was divided between capitalist Western powers led by the United States and the socialist countries led by the Soviet Union. Most revolutionary movements aligned with one or the other. Under Imam Khomeini 's leadership, the Iranian Revolution charted a third path. It was neither capitalist nor communist. It was Islamic, indigenous, and anti-imperialist. It combined religious principles, revolutionary structure and social vision in a way that directed Iran 's post-revolutionary path.
For anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, who were resisting a white minority regime propped up by Western powers at the time, this served as a striking precedent. It demonstrated that even the most entrenched, externally supported systems could be dismantled through people-powered resistance rooted in ideological conviction.
Ayatollah Khamenei also emphasised the value Imam Khomeini placed on self-reliance. He argued that national pride and dignity depend on a country 's ability to chart its own development path, including in areas such as science and technology. It is within this context that Iran 's nuclear programme is defended. He argued that nuclear development is aimed at domestic energy security, advancing medical research, and promoting technological independence rather than serving military objectives. Iran will not be bullied into forgoing a process that will significantly benefit its people.
A deeply moving moment in Imam Khamenei 's address arose when he highlighted Imam Khomeini 's profound commitment to the Palestinian cause – a cause that remains tragically urgent despite the passage of decades. With a voice heavy with sorrow and disbelief, he reflected on the unimaginable suffering in Gaza: children being pulled lifeless from the debris, families torn apart in an instant, and whole neighbourhoods reduced to ashes. He questioned how such cruelty can persist while the world stands by and watches.
His condemnation extended beyond apartheid-Israel and its United States backers to include those Islamic governments whose silence, or worse, whose political and economic engagement with the aggressors, amounts to betrayal. It was not a geopolitical critique; it was a moral reckoning. He warned that complicity today offers no protection tomorrow. The occupation, dehumanisation and unchecked violence that are currently unleashed on the people of Gaza may one day be directed at them.
Beyond its ceremonial aspects, the anniversary event served as a moment of reflection on leadership, ideological clarity, and the lasting impact of revolutionary movements. These movements, such as the one that led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, continue to shape national identities and political thought. For Iran, Imam Khomeini remains a central figure in national identity and political thought. For others observing from different parts of the world, his legacy continues to provoke debate, interpretation, and – among some – admiration for his role in forging a path distinct from dominant global powers.
Events such as the annual commemoration offer an opportunity to revisit historical narratives and evaluate their relevance in a contemporary context. They provide a platform for political reaffirmation, public engagement, and discourse about national direction. In Iran, where the revolution remains a foundational element of political identity, such commemorations are also moments of political continuity and ideological reinforcement.
For international audiences, observing such events can offer insight into how national narratives evolve, especially in states with revolutionary origins. They highlight the interplay between memory, identity, and governance, as well as the role of leadership legacies in shaping long-term policy and societal direction.
Whether viewed with admiration, critique, or analytical interest, the legacy of the 1979 revolution – and of the man who led it – continues to resonate within Iran and across broader geopolitical and intellectual landscapes.
Cde Reneva Fourie is a member of the Politburo and Central Committee
*This article was written before the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran
Groundwork of the People's Red Caravan
Barry Mitchell
“… study the conditions in this country and concretise the demands of the toiling masses from first-hand information…”
Letter from Moses M Kotane in Cradock to Johannesburg District Party Committee dated February 23, 1934.
Located a stone's throw away from two multi-billion-dollar mines on the platinum belt is a village called Motlhabe. The village falls under the administration of the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela Traditional Council and the North West Province, Moses Kotane District Municipality.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we arrived at the Motlhabe Tribal Office, our operations centre consisted of a small boardroom, an attached administration office (which acted as a field kitchen), two pitched gazebos and the surrounding grounds. This would be the provisional headquarters of the South African Communist Party for the next seven days.
The advance contingent of the People's Red Caravan (PRC) had been based at the village for the past two weeks, preparing the ground for the launch. We met with the Kgosi Nyalala Pilane of the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela, who was briefed by SACP General Secretary Cde Solly Mapaila on the context and character of the PRC and what we had planned for the week ahead. The king and the communist – Socialism with South African Characteristics.
We woke every morning early, met at the 24-hour Motlhabe clinic and set off at 07h00 for a 2.5 kilometre walk, run, and dynamic stretching activity led by the GS and motivated and coached by Cde PJ Mnguni. The winter mornings are cold in Motlhabe, but this activity gave us a chance to laugh, to focus and to reflect on the day ahead. During the course of the week, a number of community members were inspired to join us.
As soon as breakfast, tea and coffee were finished, the seven workstreams set off to their respective areas of operation. The days were long, and for some, like the Comrades preparing our meals, the logistics and media team of the PRC and, of course, the comrades working on the 10 hectares of communal land that we planned to cultivate, this was a campaign of non-stop dedication. A really impressive expression of the capacity of the SACP, despite our numerous constraints.
In the evenings, we returned the operations centre, where the GS provided an introductory context. This was followed by workstream reports and discussions. Given the fatigue and the need to set realistic targets and apply the theory developed by the Central Committee, there was little time for unnecessary speeches; one had to sift through the facts to get to the truth.
The days of planning, working and seeing the beginnings of a seed sprout its leaves of self-reliance and sustainability in a community that had been long-forgotten, coincides directly with the building of a powerful socialist movement for workers and the poor. This is an important undercurrent that many misinterpret as a short-term elections programme. They are mistaken.
The careful planning and launch of the PRC now prepares us for the next province, and in leaving Motlhabe village, we have not only fixed what the state had neglected for 3 years, we had established the Party's presence, we worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the community and through this, provided support for the Party's BG Molewa District and Moses Kotane Province to forge ahead with this campaign.
In one week, our PRC established 210 household food gardens, established a united football cooperative, actioned the repairs of the primary and high school, rehabilitated the crèche, clinic, community hall and established a multi-purpose centre. A local IT technician is in the process of planning the establishment of free access to Wi-Fi, and committees have been established across various areas of production and activity. The bridge separating the village became a symbol of the state of the NDR in 2025. The team that spent days assessing and repairing the bridge are indeed another expression of the hidden but glaring capacity within the Party.
The communal land workstream was a contrasting challenge to confront; it was a project of immense proportions, filled with obstacles and thick roots and water scarcity. Against these odds, the team worked tirelessly, sometimes sleeping onsite, towards the planting of vegetables, an orchard, a poultry farm with fencing and a security post. This is another testimony to the determination and sacrifice that our comrades make in practically placing the building blocks of socialism on the floor. To dig, change light bulbs, organise community committees, set up song writing and producing sessions and address the basic conditions that make life liveable, through self-reliance, sustaining one's family by producing a disposable income and supplementing nutrition.
On Sunday, 08 June 2025, the village converged at the Motlhabe Community Hall. The Party report, delivered by the GS, provided an account of the work we had collectively undertaken with the community and expressed the commitment we had built with the village of Mothlabe. The launch of the PRC represents a step towards an organisation rooted amongst our communities, it represents a significant departure from debating dynamics in a boardroom, and it represents the superiority of our theoretical guide and revolutionary practice. It serves as a call to our membership and supporters to volunteer their skills and understanding in the activation of the PRC across the country.
Kgabo!
The soil is black. A strong alkaline smell permeates from the ground post-tilling.
“Kgabo!” He shouts, “Where's the measuring tape?”
We walk with fatigued purpose through the rows and rows of hand-dug trenches.
This is where cabbages, spinach and other vegetables will soon be planted.
Our nostrils filled with red dust, our hands ache, our stomachs moan.
We continue.
We will realise this in our lifetime.
We continue.
Cde Mitchell is an SACP Central Committee member, and the parliamentary officer for the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union
Debating the praxis of the People's Red Caravan
The following article was published in The African, 10 June. We reproduce it here, followed by two replies
The SACP's People 's Caravan: A Flirtation with the Electorate Ahead of Local Government Polls?
Zamikhaya Maseti
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has launched the People 's Caravan Campaign. For the first time in recent memory, its Red Flag does not merely flutter in alliance corridors but plants itself in the dust of working-class existence. Over the weekend, I gave myself the time and the ideological quiet to study the concept document titled The People's Caravan: Going Back to the Grassroots.
My cursory reading of the document revealed a theoretical looseness that undermined its ideological force. It would have stood on firmer ground, tighter, and more convincing had it been anchored in the historical documents of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). No text emerges in isolation; every articulation is part of a longer dialectical lineage.
It is precisely within this context that I juxtaposed the document, deliberately and methodically, against three seminal coordinates within the Marxist-Leninist tradition texts that have not only illuminated but actively structured the ideological scaffolding of our national liberation struggle. I want to mention these three coordinates in the following order: the ANC Strategy and Tactics Document (1969), the ANC Green Book (1979), and the SACP 's Path to Power (1989).
Let me begin with what must be affirmed: the People 's Caravan Campaign has jolted the SACP from a deep slumber. It is visible now, not in press briefings, but in places where the class war lives, communities battered by municipal neglect and economic dispossession.
One only wishes this campaign were not a seasonal flirtation with the masses in the run-up to the 2026 National Local Government Elections, only to retreat into ideological slumber once the ballots are counted. This mode of engagement must not be episodic. It must be genetically encoded into the Party 's operational DNA.
The concept document itself makes several compelling claims. It presents the People 's Caravan Campaign as a revolutionary, mass-based programme intended to reconnect with the people and reconstitute grassroots power, that elemental force needed to advance the socialist struggle of the workers and the poor.
It acknowledges, quite correctly, that electoral contests are only one terrain of class struggle. It also gestures at global Left mobilisation. Yet even in that gesture, the document renders Africa absent a Continental silence that is politically untenable. Yes, the 5th Special National Congress did refer to African developments, but only in passing. This is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Africa 's contemporary currents are not peripheral; they are tectonic.
Consider this: Namibia is now led by women at the highest echelons, a female President, Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwa, and Deputy President, Lucia Witbooi. Botswana 's political scene is rejuvenated by a young President, Duma Boko. In Senegal, it is President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and in Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré stands as a revolutionary mirror to Thomas Sankara, drawing mass support and articulating a new strain of post-colonial defiance. In Mali, the military junta holds the reins of state.
Both countries, Mali and Burkina Faso are aligned with Russia, a power whose strategic relationship to African sovereignty must be rigorously analysed. What is the SACP 's stance? How does a Marxist-Leninist Party position itself on these emergent formations? Does it embrace or disavow the militarised popular governments emerging across Francophone Africa?
And how does it read the Russian presence, as imperial residue or as dialectical opportunity? These questions are not rhetorical. They are strategic. They belong inside the People 's Caravan Campaign theoretical engine.
Even in its global analysis, the document introduces strange contradictions. It suggests building alliances with COSATU, civic movements, and even faith-based organisations. Let us pause here: a Marxist-Leninist Party partnering with theological institutions? That is a line that demands ideological double-clicking. We will return to it.
Still more puzzling is the near-total absence of the African National Congress (ANC) in the strategic partnership framework. That silence is not accidental. It is either an editorial lapse or a soft signal of rupture. Either way, it must be named.
A second issue worthy of double-clicking. Equally ambiguous is the role of COSATU. As the Party moves toward contesting the 2026 National and Local Government Elections, what is COSATU 's position? Is it aligned? Is it hesitant? And why does the Party treat COSATU as if it were the only labour federation in the country?
This is factional myopia at best, and strategic suicide at worst. The SACP, if it is serious about its vanguard role, must begin to agitate for a unified working-class front, cutting across NACTU, FEDUSA, and SAFTU. One federation. One country.
If the Party is to usher in the Second Stage of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), that transitional detour toward socialism, we cannot do so with a fragmented and politically anaemic working class. And if the Party is to contest elections, such a resolution must be anchored in foundational texts: the ANC 's Green Book and The Path to Power. But the resolution adopted in 2024 appears unmoored from that historical logic. This disconnect is the third matter I will interrogate in greater detail.
The People 's Caravan Programme does not move in abstraction. It travels along the neglected veins of the Republic: informal settlements, townships, rural outposts, locations evacuated by policy but saturated with pain. It is here where the Party now seeks to inscribe itself, not with empty slogans, but with presence. The politics of the People 's Caravan Campaign is one of pedestrian intimacy: house visits, open-air street engagements, and listening posts that attempt to restore a culture of direct political encounters.
This is a necessary departure from the Party's historical reliance on alliance theatre, where strategic importance was confused with symbolic positioning. Through the People 's Caravan Campaign, the SACP is not theorising about community relevance from the lofty heights of national structures; it is testing its viability in the mud of lived experience.
The question is not whether the Party can win votes, but whether it can become real, in the Marxist-Leninist sense, as a Party rooted in mass life, capable of organising, defending, and advancing the concrete interests of the working class and the poor.
The Party's resolution to contest the 2026 election is not informed or anchored in any of the above documents. The ANC Green Book is very clear on the Two-Stage Theory of the Revolution. Pallo Jordan explains it very succinctly in his presentation to the Politico-Military Strategy Commission of the ANC in Lusaka.
He said: "We debated the more long-term aims of our National Democratic Revolution (NDR) and the extent to which the ANC, as a national movement, should tie itself to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism and publicly commit to the Socialist option." He elaborated further and stated that the ANC is not the Party. However, the support of the Socialist Order is a matter of tactical consideration.
It therefore follows that the ANC acknowledges the role of the Party as the vanguard of the working class. It is therefore the SACP that must usher the South African people into the Second Stage of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) as a political vanguard of the working class. The fundamental strategic and tactical questions that the SACP must answer are:
- Has the ANC changed its attitude towards the establishment of the socialist order?
- On what theoretical and ideological basis was the resolution to contest the 2026 National Government Elections taken?
- Is the SACP convinced that the First Stage of the National Democratic Revolution has been completed, as the ANC Green Book clearly outlines which vanguard at one stage and which on the second?
- How does the SACP foresee the nature and form of the Tripartite Alliance after it has contributed to the ANC 's electoral downward swing, which is predicted to be at 32% nationally?
The SACP must still make a convincing theoretical argument as it goes ahead with the implementation and rolling out of the People 's Caravan Campaign.
As I conclude, my considered view is that the outcome of the May 2024 National General Elections represents a regression and therefore, the First Stage of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) is incomplete, and the ANC is at its weakest.
Zamikhaya Maseti is a Political Economy Analyst with a Magister Philosophiae (M. PHIL) in South African Politics and Political Economy from the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), now known as the Nelson Mandela University (NMU)
The People 's Red Caravan – not a flirtation, but the mass line in practice
Tebogo Phadu
I welcome the intervention by Zamikhaya Maseti as part of the ongoing debate about the strategic and tactical direction of the SACP.
The reflections are earnest and come from a place of deep political concern.
But we must be rigorous and clear: critiques of the People 's Red Caravan that frame it as an NGO imitation or “flirtation with the electorate” are misplaced and risk reinforcing a static and outdated conception of revolution.
The People 's Red Caravan – the mass line in action
The People 's Red Caravan is not an election campaign disguised as outreach. It is an organised political re-engagement with the masses, rooted in the mass line—a foundational method of Marxist-Leninist work.
What is the mass line? It means “from the masses, to the masses.” It means going among the people, learning from their lived struggles, summarising their needs and experiences through a revolutionary lens, and returning with a collective programme that empowers them to fight consciously for their own liberation. It is not charity. It is not technocratic. It is not parachuting in with answers—it is political organisation from below.
Whether we are organising consumer co-operatives, initiating communal farms, launching traditional bakeries, training coop banking leadership, or reviving civic forums, the Red Caravan is building concrete mechanisms of working-class power—not at a future stage, but in the present.
The ‘two-stage' theory must be rejected
The continued clinging to the Two-Stage Theory as the strategic schema for the SACP is not only outdated—it is harmful. The artificial division between a “national democratic” and a “socialist” stage has led to a political paralysis that postpones the socialist project indefinitely, while accommodating liberal democracy and capitalist accumulation in the name of “stage one.”
This theory has not only distorted the SACP 's programme in the post-1994 period—it has objectively weakened our ability to lead the working class, allowing capital to regroup under the cover of “transformation” while we debated the maturity of conditions for socialism.
Let us be clear: the class question cannot be deferred. There is no real national liberation, no meaningful resolution of the land question, no serious challenge to patriarchy or racism, without confronting the material relations of production. It is absolutely delusional to think, for example, that we can resolve race or gender oppression in South Africa without simultaneously confronting the class structure of capitalism that profits from both.
We do not go to communal farms to tick a developmental box. We go to organise producers, collectivise their struggles, confront the market, build alternative supply chains, and inject socialist consciousness into material practice. That is the transition to socialism—rooted in the present, not postponed to an idealised future.
On cadreship and praxis
Yes, we need cadre development. But not as an abstract intellectual exercise. The People 's Red Caravan is a mobile political school, reviving the mass line and training a new layer of class-conscious leaders who emerge from community, farm, township, workplace, and union spaces.
We must reject the idea that ideological depth is measured by how many texts you can quote. As Marx and Lenin insisted, revolutionary theory must be fused with revolutionary practice. If you cannot organise a food garden or run a co-operative meeting, your theory is sterile. If you cannot defend the Red Caravan against ideological distortion, your leadership is academic.
The point is not to reject theory—but to root it in struggle. Otherwise, we retreat into ideological abstraction.
Rebuild now, not later
The SACP stands at a crossroads. The People 's Red Caravan is not about staging a comeback. It is about rebuilding the revolutionary road by walking it with the masses. The crisis of capitalist democracy demands that we act boldly, organise practically, and lead ideologically.
Let us not wait for “stage two.” Let us build socialism now, through the struggles of the present, guided by a revived mass line and a working-class programme that lives among the people, not in theoretical documents.
Cde Phadu is a SACP Central Committee member, and DTCA MD and Malesela Makhafola Chair of the Secondary Consumer Co-op Working Group
Myths of a fortune teller – Zamikhaya Maseti misreads the People 's Red Caravan campaign
Tinyiko Ntini
Zamikhaya Maseti's article on the People's Red Caravan is a masterclass of political misdiagnosis, weaving a narrative so detached from the(SACP's revolutionary praxis that it borders on myth. Maseti's depiction of the “People's Caravan” as a superficial electoral stunt is not just reductive; it's an affront to the SACP's decades-long commitment to the working class's material struggles.
By ignoring the Party 's historical and programmatic foundations, as well as its tangible contributions to grassroots battles, including the fight against state capture, Maseti exposes his analysis as intellectually bankrupt. Drawing on the SACP 's Path to Power (1989), Green Book (1979), Strategy and Tactics (1969), and Programme: for People, Solidarity, and the Environment over Profits, this response dismantles Maseti 's distortions with facts, examples, and the unyielding clarity of Marxist-Leninist political lexis
Maseti's central claim - that the People's Caravan is a “seasonal flirtation” with the electorate - grossly misrepresents the SACP's strategic orientation. The Path to Power (1989) explicitly articulates the Party's dual approach: combining electoral participation with extra-parliamentary mobilisation to advance the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). It states, “The struggle for power is waged on multiple fronts - electoral, organisational, and ideological - rooted in the working class and poor.” The Caravan operationalises this through sustained, community-embedded actions, not flirting campaign stops.
The 15th National Congress adopted a programme of action, the South African Struggle for Socialism elevates several pillars, one of which is Community Development, which since Congress we have managed to roll out. The conceptualisation of the People 's Red Caravan was not the beginning of us reconnecting with our communities, but just an anchor to amplify our community development programme rolled out in several provinces. There was a clear resolution that no SACP event will take place without a community activism event.
“The South African Communist Party (SACP) proposes the People's Caravan as a revolutionary mass-based programme to reconnect the Party leadership with the daily struggles of the working class. Inspired by the mandate of the SACP's 15th National Congress in 2022 – “Together, let us build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor” – this initiative will embed leaders directly within communities. Rather than deploying cadres to make grand speeches, the Caravan emphasises organising, listening, learning and leading from among the people. This back-to-basics approach reflects the SACP's historic mission as a vanguard rooted in the masses, not apart from them. It responds to South Africa's urgent crises of poverty, unemployment, gender-based violence, and social decay by mobilising collective action at the grassroots”. These are not vote-grabbing gimmicks but practical interventions aligned with the ANC's Green Book's (1979) call for “organic links with the masses” to counter capitalist alienation. Maseti's failure to engage with these texts reveals his critique as a fortune teller's prophecy - vague, speculative, and divorced from evidence.
The SACP's history of practical struggle further exposes Maseti's narrative as fiction. Far from being a newcomer to grassroots activism, the Party has been a vanguard in confronting systemic exploitation since its founding in 1921. During the anti-apartheid struggle, as outlined in Strategy and Tactics (1969), the SACP mobilised workers' unions and community structures to challenge colonial-capitalist oppression, fostering “revolutionary activity among the people.” Post-1994, this commitment persisted. In the early 2000s, the SACP spearheaded campaigns against privatisation, notably opposing the ANC-led government's neoliberal GEAR policy, which threatened public services. The Party's Programme critiques a “subservience to monopoly capital” approach, advocating instead for socialist transformation. Maseti's suggestion that the Caravan marks a sudden pivot to populism ignores this continuity, peddling a myth that the SACP only engages the masses when elections loom.
A glaring omission in Maseti's article is the SACP's pivotal role in the launch of the Triple H campaign that Chris Hani led and Mawubuye'mhlaba: The Land campaign in the early 2000s, the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition and the battle against state capture, a defining struggle of South Africa's post-apartheid. Between 2010 and 2018, as the Gupta family and their allies siphoned billions from state-owned enterprises like Eskom and Transnet, the SACP was among the first to be vocal. In 2016, its Central Committee publicly condemned “parasitic networks” undermining the NDR, calling for a judicial inquiry into state capture, well before the Zondo Commission was established.
The Party's Programme emphasises “defending democratic institutions” against capitalist predation, and its cadres, alongside COSATU and civil society, mobilised protests to demand accountability. For instance, in 2017, SACP members joined nationwide marches to pressure then-President Jacob Zuma to resign, amplifying the #ZumaMustFall campaign. These actions, grounded in the Path to Power's insistence on “confronting counter-revolutionary forces,” demonstrate the SACP's practical engagement in defending the interests of the working class. Maseti's silence on this front is not just an oversight - it's a deliberate erasure of the Party's revolutionary role in defence of the working class.
The People's Caravan builds on this legacy, addressing the material dispossession that state capture exacerbated. In places like eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, Caravan activists have supported informal traders facing municipal harassment, echoing the Green Book's directive to “organise the unorganised.” The Party led many workers' struggles that led to the establishment of new unions within and outside COSATU.
In Limpopo's Vhembe District, we've facilitated community dialogues to tackle water shortages, a crisis worsened by years of mismanagement. These efforts are not “theoretical looseness,” as Maseti claims, but a disciplined application of Marxist-Leninist principles, as outlined in the Programme, which prioritises “people and solidarity over profits.” By dismissing the Caravan as ideologically vague, Maseti betrays his ignorance of the SACP's dialectical approach, which integrates immediate community needs with the long-term goal of socialist transformation.
Maseti's scepticism about the SACP's motives also sidesteps the Party's strategic recalibration within the Tripartite Alliance. In 1993, the Party Central Committee developed a discussion document titled ‘The role of the SACP in the transition to democracy and socialism', noting that “if the National Liberation Struggle is successfully hijacked by some liberal project or undermined by such a ? character or if our NLM unity is broken and there is chaos, and our strategic purpose of the NDR is lost, the SACP may well need to assume a more autonomous character ”.
The appreciation should be that the Alliance is not a paper arrangement formed as an electoral pact, but a revolutionary and symbiotic relationship forged through struggles and the programme of the NDR. SACP 's People 's Red Caravan should not crudely be linked to electoral contest but the crisis of identity and representation of the working class necessitated such a posture. Our 1993 posture foresaw the current moment we are faced with and the crisis of legitimacy fuelled by the neoliberal concessions and the coalition with the Democratic Alliance (DA) by our glorious movement made it worse.
The SACP's decision to contest the 2026 Local Government Elections independently, as reported in The African (December 18, 2024), is not opportunistic but for an alternative voice for the working class. The Path to Power underscores that the NDR is a “continuous struggle” to dismantle colonial and capitalist structures, a process stalled by the ANC's governance lapses. The Caravan, with its “pedestrian intimacy” - house visits, street committees, and worker assemblies - seeks to rebuild grassroots power, reorientating the Alliance towards its revolutionary roots.
In Soweto, for example, Caravan cadres have mobilised against prepaid electricity meters, which burden the poor, aligning with the Programme's critique of the “commodification of basic needs.” Maseti's portrayal of this as electoral posturing is not just myopic - it's a wilful misreading of the SACP's class-based strategy. We extend our invitation to Maseti to the next People's Red Caravan so that he experiences the new organising strategy of the SACP.
Furthermore, Maseti's claim that the Caravan lacks permanence ignores the SACP's track record of sustained activism. During the 2016 #FeesMustFall protests, YCLSA student activists supported demands for free education, rooted in the Strategy and Tactics' call for “democratic access to knowledge.” In 2020, amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Party coordinated food parcel distributions in the rural Eastern Cape, addressing state failures in social relief. These examples, like the Caravan's current initiatives, reflect a consistent commitment to what the Green Book terms “building people's power in action.” In contrast, Maseti's fortune-teller-like predictions of the Caravan's fleeting impact lack any grounding in the SACP's operational history, which prioritises long-term organising over short-term gains.
The Caravan's role in addressing the NDR's “incomplete” first stage, which Maseti fleeting acknowledges, further underscores its revolutionary significance. The Path to Power defines the NDR as a struggle to eradicate “national oppression and economic exploitation,” a process hindered by post-1994 compromises with capital. The Caravan confronts this head-on, tackling municipal neglect and economic exclusion. In Mangaung, cadres have supported land occupations by shack dwellers, challenging the commodification of housing. In Rustenburg, they've backed mineworkers' demands for better wages, echoing the SACP's historical solidarity with labour, as seen in its support for the 2012 Marikana strikers. These actions embody the Programme's vision of “advancing the working class's material interests,” countering Maseti's baseless claim of ideological drift.
Maseti 's article, in sum, is a tapestry of distortions, weaving a myth that obscures the SACP 's revolutionary essence. His failure to engage with the ANC 's and Party 's foundational texts - Path to Power, the Green Book, Strategy and Tactics, and SARS Programme - renders his critique intellectually hollow. His silence on the SACP 's practical struggles, from anti-state capture activism to grassroots campaigns against privatisation and municipal neglect, exposes his narrative as a fortune teller 's guesswork, not analysis. It is ideal for Maseti to buy himself or indicate if he needs a donation of Prof. Tom Lodge 's book (May his soul rest in peace) Red Road to Freedom: History of the SACP 1921-2021. Maseti would do well to trade his crystal ball for a study of the SACP 's history and texts.
The People 's Caravan is not an electoral mirage but a disciplined, mass-based intervention to rebuild working-class power in a polity scarred by capitalist predation. By embedding cadres in communities, addressing material needs, and asserting the SACP 's independent voice and working-class voice, the Caravan advances the NDR 's socialist horizon. The working class deserves better than his myths - they deserve the truth of a Party unwavering in its fight for a socialist South Africa.
Cde Ntini is an SACP Central Committee Member and Assistant Secretary for Organising and Campaigns
Umsebenzi Online is an online voice of the South African working class
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