SACP Gauteng message to ANC Election Manifesto Rally let us unite our communities behind the ANC for decisive election victory!

4 June 2016

The SACP in Gauteng is 100 percent behind the ANC in this 2016 Election Campaign.

• For more than 90 years, the Party of the Working Class, the South African Communist Party has stood together with the ANC as the leader of the broad movement of the people.
• We stood together in the fight to end white minority rule and its corrupt local government system and its puppets.
• We stood (and still stand) together to re-build of a new democratic, non-racial and non-sexist local government with capacity to address the needs of all South Africa, not just the minority.
• We are second largest political organisation in this province in terms of membership and remain the dependable and reliable ally of the ANC.

The SACP says: together, with you the people, we have made many accomplishments, and together more can be done when we are united.

• So many achievements have been since we ended apartheid rule in 1994 and since we introduced the most progressive constitution in the world, 20 years ago, which made these achievements possible.

We are talking about:

• Free houses: So many millions of our people have benefitted from the largest, recording breaking free housing programme in the world. Just a few days ago we have just passed Expropriation Bill in Parliament - which is a big milestone in our struggle bring about radical change in this country. The passing of this legislation, which is in line with our constitution, will enable us, for example, to expropriate more private property for the benefit of many of our people who desperately need decent housing.
• There are more hospitals, more clinics and more doctors in the townships where there were none before. In this way, we are saying access to health care is a right for all not a privilege for few and once again we are bringing dignity to the working class and poor communities.
• Expanded access to electricity: Our townships are no longer "dark cities" - thanks to the ANC that respects and implement the constitutional right of our people to access electricity. By the way we have delivered on electricity what the political parties of white privilege could not deliver for more than 100 years.
• Expanded and quality public education: The sons and daughters of the working class have access to nearly free public school education and we are Grade R is now universal in Gauteng. More than 1,4 million students now study at colleges and universities, up from few tens of thousands in 1994.
• And many, many more proud achievements. There is much more to be done - we must continue to address social and economic needs of our people in the townships, where majority of the working class and the poor are found

What the 2016 Election Manifesto and this campaign is all about?

• This 2016 Election Manifesto is about Advancing People`s Power in our working class communities! It is about getting millions of our people involved in the decision-making processes that affective their lives.

The SACP says together let us:

• Focus on and strengthen the power of the working class in the townships.
• Ensure local government work hand-in-hand with mobilised communities to drive local development and build the township economy through Ntirhisano campaigns.
• build people`s power in our schools to become one of the most educated nation in the world.
• build people`s power in clinics and hospitals to build the health system based on NHI in which health care will be free at the point of service.
• build people`s power in our streets - making them free from crime, drugs, nyaope and anti-social activities.

• This Election Manifesto is about Building the Township Economy based on the values and principles of solidarity and co-operation of township enterprises and communities.
  • For many generations the township enterprises have supplemented the wages and income of the black workers and the poor in the townships. But the solidarity character of the township economy today, is faced with many threats, including threats from big business.
  • Spaza shops, for example, which have long served as supplementary income for working class households and supported by the community on solidarity basis, are now increasingly being taken over by foreign nationals on the one hand and forced to compete with big monopoly retail chain stores at their door steps. Which economic sector will be next? The minibus taxis? Our burial societies and stokvels? Our car repairs shops? Our creches?
  • The SACP says let us promote the township economy that addresses community needs, in which co-operatives, self-employment activities and promotion of light manufacturing and productive activities are promoted within and around our townships. Together let us:
    • Form and strengthen and expand co-operative banking institutions - owned by workers and communities,
    • promote manufacturing enterprises owned by their workers, especially the youth and women - contributing to creation of decent jobs.
    • promote community-ownership of retail and wholesale stores to prove food and other items at affordable prices and not encourage the development of corporate capture of spaza shops by monopoly companies or capture by foreign nationals.
    • Support existing enterprises formed by our people to promotion the value of solidarity within our communities, such as burial societies, stokvels, and social clubs.
• This Election Manifesto is about strengthening municipal power to deliver basic services, housing, public transport and bring an end to outsourcing! The SACP says, together let us:
  • Move with speed to strengthen the power of municipalities to deliver more on our massive housing and radical human settlements programme bring an end to the persisting apartheid (and of course bourgeois) geography of human settlement patterns. We must also fight the dispossession of the homes of the poor through mindless evictions.
  • build a stronger public transport system - that extends Bus-Rapid Transport (BRT) to all regions of our province in a integrated system and in ways that are affordable to the workers and the poor - again undermine the apartheid geography
  • Build the capacity of the local government, through insourcing and NOT outsourcing of services, to provide a better quality of services to our people. For workers whose jobs are outsourced to a private company, this has meant same job with longer working hours, different working conditions, losing a provident, a medical aid and other benefits.
• Finally, this Manifesto is about uniting our communities behind the ANC - Vote ANC! The SACP says:
  • Only when our communities are united behind the ANC we are stronger as communities. Only when we are united we are better placed to bring about radical changes we need to improve the lives of our communities. Let us fight off those who seek and divide our communities.
  • Only our movement led by the ANC has capacity to unite our people for a more radical change of our society and communities. This is a capacity no political opposition can ever claim.
  • Let us support our ward councillors who have been subjected to democratic process through robust community scrutiny.

SACP SAYS, A VOTE ANC, IS A VOTE FO CHRIS HANI, FOR MANDELA, VOTE SISULU AND MANY HEROES AND HEROOINES OF OUR STRUGGLE!

Issued by the SACP Gauteng province
Contact:

Jacob Mamabolo - SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 082 884 1868

Lucian Segami - SACP Gauteng Provincial Spokesperson
Mobile: +2779 5220 098
Office: +2711 339 3621/2
Twitter: GPSACP
Facebook Page: SACP Gauteng Province