27 September 2024

The SACP in Mpumalanga province notes with serious dismay the recent attack on the General Secretary of the South African Communist, Comrade Solly Mapaila by the ANC Deputy President, Comrade Paul Mashatile and other ANC Leaders.

Speaking on the sidelines of the National Congress of the South African Democratic Teachers Union with the SABC, the ANC Deputy President blatantly lied to the media that “the South African Communist Party does not have a problem with the Government of National Unity”, and that Comrade Solly Mapaila is the problem.

We view this attack as a blue lie aimed at not only discrediting the General Secretary but also the Party because SACP General Secretary Comrade Solly Mapaila does not speak for himself. He is representing decisions of SACP Central Committee meetings guided by the Constitution of the Organisation. The General Secretary is the chief custodian of the Party’s policy positions and resolutions, and is constitutionally empowered with the mandate to speak on its behalf as the leading National Office Bearer of the SACP according to conditions determined by the Central Committee.

We are surprised that the ANC Deputy President encourages leaders to attend Party schools to develop themselves, but we believe he needs those classes more than any of those leaders. It is a shame that the Deputy President of the glorious 112-year-old liberation movement would fail to grasp such simple organisational principles and functionality of the Party like the SACP which is an Alliance partner of the ANC.

We want to state it categorically clear that the SACP is against the GNU and we have stated our position on this matter. We also want to strongly advise ANC Deputy President Mashatile to acquaint himself with the Party’s position before attempting to isolate and attack the SACP’s General Secretary. This is simple logic that does not need one to go to a Party school for him to understand the most basic operations of the Congress Movement.

The SACP in Mpumalanga stands with the Central Committee on the GNU issue and is certain that sleeping with the chief representative of our class enemy in the form of the undemocratic “DA” is regressive to the National Democratic Revolution. This posture, if it is not challenged and collapsed, has the capacity to further plunge the working class and poor people into more crises of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.

The GNU is not working for the people of South Africa but for the neoliberal proponents who only serve the interests of their masters who are running South Africa from the grave. For the Deputy President to behave like an excited molecule regarding this position is uncalled for. We believe this is the moment required for a more proper assertive path of the Revolutionary Alliance to come to the fore, than to discount a debate about the radical transformation of society.

The National Democratic Revolution by its nature has to be a revolutionary struggle to transform the underlying, systemic features of our society that continue to reproduce race, gendered and class oppression. It is a struggle to place social needs above private needs and the SACP believes that the primary motive of the NDR is to boldly assert themselves, otherwise the NDR will lose its way and stagnate.

We, therefore, call upon Comrade Paul Mashatile to withdraw his remarks and apologise to the SACP its General Secretary Comrade Solly Mapaila. Mashatile’s behaviour is undermining the unity and cohesion of the Alliance, and his acts have the potential of derailing the NDR. We must ask ourselves difficult questions as to who was he speaking for, because the real ANC as an organization knows the position of the SACP on this matter.

The SACP in Mpumalanga is undivided on the support for SACP General Secretary Comrade Solly Mapaila, based on our conviction for the National Democratic Revolution, which is anti-imperialist in character and aimed at pursuing a non-capitalist developmental path for the people to free themselves from exploitation, poverty, and hunger.

ISSUED BY THE SACP MPUMALANGA PROVINCE

For further enquiries contact:

Lucky Mbuyane
SACP Provincial Secretary
082 351 5804

Or

Lesetja Dikgale
SACP Spokesperson
076 869 4360

Issued by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.
 
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