SACP Western Cape Provincial Council Media Statement
06 September 2008
The SACP Western Cape held its Special Provincial Council on Saturday 6th September 2008, at Harry Gwala High School in Khayelitsha to discuss and reflect on, amongst other things, the preparations for the SACP National Policy Conference. The Provincial Council, which had a full quorum, was attended by SACP branches, Districts, PEC members and the Young Communist League.
The SACP Provincial Council adopted the following resolutions:
1. On the SACP and State power:
Noting that:
(a) The Sacp 12th National Congress resolved that the party will contest elections in 2009 in the context of a reconfigured Alliance. Congress further resolved that we should convene a national policy conference in 2008 to consider the modalities of our electoral path with due regard to the following options;
i. An electoral pact with our Alliance Partners which could include an agreement on deployments, possible quotas, the accountability of elected representatives including accountability of Sacp cadres to the Party, the election manifesto and the independent face and role for the SACP and its cadres within legislatures;
Or
ii. Independent electoral lists on the voters roll with the possible objective of constituting a coalition Alliance agreement post elections
Believing that:
(b) That the state power question should be debated and located within the context of the outcome of the December 2007 Polokwane ANC National Conference as well as the ground breaking national Alliance summit held in May 2008.
(c) Our recent experience in the Western Cape in the midst of a ground breaking provincial Alliance Declaration, taught us that the mere request for consultation on the deployment of our cadres into government will not necessarily yield the outcomes expected but create further tensions particularly where there are no shared perspective and understanding on the Alliance as the strategic political centre.
(d) For the SACP a reconfigured Alliance as the strategic political centre must be premised on an understanding that the Alliance as a whole will jointly develop policies, jointly manage the implementation of policy, jointly deploy cadres into government and state machinery, jointly exercise accountability of deployed cadres and collectively manage the execution of the election manifesto.
(e) The central question of any revolution, including the South African national democratic revolution, is the question of state power. Since 1994, while not being the ruling party as such, the SACP has been party to governance by virtue of the fact that leading SACP cadres served in cabinet, national assembly, provincial legislatures, local government, Ministers, MEC's, Mayors and councillors.
(f) The question that has to be settled is how our Party cadres account to the SACP whilst serving in legislatures, parliament or councils under the ticket and the discipline of the ANC. Clearly this cannot best serve the Party especially in advancing the cause of a socialist oriented national democratic revolution given that our cadres are constantly subjected to the discipline of the ANC even if it means voting for neo-liberal policies such as GEAR.
Therefore resolve that:
(g) In pursuing a socialist oriented NDR, we should be guided by our Medium Term Vision (MTV) which enjoins us to lead a process of building working class hegemony in all key sites of power including the state, amongst others.
(h) It is against this background that the SACP in the Western Cape resolves that the Party in the 2009 elections must be represented by its own deployed cadres within a reconfigured alliance in all institutions of governance and administration, including but not limited to national and provincial parliaments. These cadres must be able to represent, argue and advance Party programmes and policies.
(i) As the Party we should conclude an agreement with the ANC within the Alliance prior to the elections that the 2009 elections be fought on the basis of a 70 – 30% allocation of seats between the ANC, SACP & COSATU.
(j) SACP candidates must be accountable to the SACP – with the party having the right within a broad Alliance strategy to direct them as well as to recall them.
(k) In respect of the next local government elections, the September 2008 SACP National Policy Conference must debate the need for the SACP to contest the next local government elections in its own right.
(l) The SACP national policy must consider the following critical proposals as part of our overall electoral process and governance;
i. Reviewing the electoral system on the basis of a balance between a proportional and constituency based system;
ii. Doing away with provincial government with the only two tiers of government being national and a strengthened local government. Provinces must have administrations for purposed of implementing national polices.
2. On the recent ANC Western Cape decision to unilaterally appoint the Premier, re-shuffling of the Cabinet and the appointment of 3 completely new MPL's
Noting that:
1. As a result of the SACP's insistence that we would not tolerate the undermining of the Alliance insofar as governance in our province is concerned and our call for the intervention of the national alliance leadership, the national Alliance Secretariat convened a meeting of the Alliance provincial POB on 21 August 2008.
2. In view of the many issues and disagreements to be dealt with, the 21 August 2009 stood adjourned until a full day session is convened by the National Alliance Secretariat.
Believing that:
3. The recent developments in our province is an expression of the 1996 Class project tendency to marginalize the Alliance despite the progressive resolutions taken at Polokwane and the agreements concluded in the national and provincial alliance summit.
4. The factionalist conduct of the current ANC provincial leadership has the potential to hurt the electoral prospects of the ANC in the 2009 elections and to deepen the divisions within our movement in the Western Cape.
5. We must be unapologetic about the fact that the SACP and COSATU, including the mainstream within the ANC, opened the bridgehead that led to the very welcome developments in the ANC at Polokwane.
6. The working class took its ideological and mass offensive to where it mattered most, in the local and mass structures of our alliance, whilst not abandoning its independence and its own campaigns.
7. We can therefore not allow remnants of the 1996 class project to derail of our efforts to re-configure the Alliance in the execution of a radical and socialist oriented NDR
Resolving that:
8. The SACP should demand and insist in the next session to be convened by the national Alliance Secretariat, that the spirit and letter of the national and provincial Alliance Summit resolutions be respected and implemented by the ANC provincial leadership without fail or delay.
3. On the recent developments regarding the R500 000 black bag saga
The SACP in the Western Cape welcomes the developments leading to our General Secretary being cleared off the allegations related to the R500 000 saga. The Party in the Western Cape has always believed in the innocence of our General Secretary.
From the genesis of these allegations we were convinced that the 1996 Class Project was the author and manufacturer of the continued and sustained offensive against the SACP and its General Secretary, especially en-route to the Polokwane ANC Conference.
These are tactics that are similar to those of the apartheid state apparatus when taxpayer's money was used to discredit the national liberation movement and its leadership, and that this project failed dismally because the masses of our country believed in its leadership and organizations.
We believe that Dexter and other people who are featured in this matter have to come clean in the allegations that is doing rounds in their names.
This whole episode has exposed the opportunism and moral bankruptcy of some former leading members of our organization. It is an experience that we need to draw lessons from.
4. On the 2008 Red October campaign
The SACP's Red October campaign for 2008 will be launched under the banner of "Building Street Committees, Building People's Power for a Revolutionary State" thereby given expression to our MTV which calls for the building of working class power in our communities as one of the key sites of power.
The campaign will build on previous campaigns of the SACP that focused on land and agrarian reform, the financial sector, public transport and public health.
This year's campaign will seek to re-build the struggle traditions of participatory democracy in our communities. We will also seek to rebuild the unity of our alliance from the ground up.
The Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign should be the central pillar of the 2008 red October campaign.
The SACP in the Western Cape will ensure that we lay a sound basis in the launching of our 2008 Red October campaign for our provincial elections strategy. In doing so we should ensure that;
(a) All our members who are Councilors, Mayors, MP's and civil servants must play an integral part in the execution of this campaign;
(b) Sacp Districts throughout our province (launched & un-launched) must convene meetings with ANC Regions and Cosatu Locals to draw our Alliance partners into the 2008 Red October programmes in the Western Cape. This is a necessary step to ensure that we rebuild the unity of our alliance from the ground up.
5. On Jacob Zuma's 12th September 2008 court appearance:
We are of the firm view that some judges continue to play in the gallery of the 1996 class project whose main agenda is to drive a neo-liberal offensive against the revolutionary forces who stands for a radical National Democratic Revolution and the fullest and most resolute implementation of the Freedom Charter.
There can be no doubt that there is a very serious agenda to create a dark cloud of suspicion that must continue to hang over the ANC President in the hope that Comrade Jacob Zuma does not become the President of the Republic of South Africa.
The SACP in the Western Cape is shocked of course to observe many commentators who declare themselves as advocates of Civil Rights, moral regeneration and defense of the constitution, who never stood up to question how NPA's continued violation of the rights of the ANC president and the justice system which continues to fail to protect the working class.
As the South African Communist Party we stand ready to defend and fight for the gains and advances made at Polokwane and to protect the democratic choice of the ANC membership when Comrade Jacob Zuma was considered fit and capable to lead the ANC and our country who continues to see the overwhelming majority of our starving people grind in poverty.
We share the concern of the majority of South Africans that this trial will not serve the best interests of South Africa and that a political resolution must therefore be found to avoid us taking our country to the brink
6. Mboweni's huge increase against the call for workers to tighten their belts:
The SACP in the Western Cape has learnt with disgust of the news that Mr. Tito Mboweni received a 27.5 % pay rise this year, well above the country's inflation and that his two Deputy Governors received increases of 66% and 72% respectively.
It is unacceptable that ordinary workers are always told to be realistic and accept meager wage increases in tandem with the inflation. This reinforces the apartheid wage gap and undermines the struggle for a decent living wage for workers.
The most serious fault line in our society is a class one where the working class is continuously sacrificed by elitism and accumulation.
It is no wonder that why Mr. Mboweni invited the media to declare that he would serve another term as the Governor of the Reserve Bank if asked to do so, whilst the working class and the poor suffer out of his continued raising of the repo lending rate by 5 points to 12 points since 2006.
The SACP in the Western Cape calls upon the reviewal of inflation targeting policy and GEAR.
The Board, the Governor and two Deputy Governors must step down because morally and ethically they cannot justify widening of the Apartheid wage gap.
The South African Reserve Bank Act must be amended and that state employees must run the Bank under the auspices of the state.
7. International Solidarity:
7.1 Zimbabwe
7.1.1 The SACP as part of its international programme of solidarity, in the Western Cape calls upon an end to the political crisis in Zimbabwe. What we are observing now is a behind the scenes deal between the elites, with no negotiations in concrete programmes that are aimed at materially altering the conditions of the working class and the poor.
7.1.2 The Zimbabwean quagmire represents nothing else but a post-colonial aberration of national democratic objectives of transformation, in which the aspirations of the working class and the poor are deferred and find no prime time in the discussions that are currently taking place.
7.1.3 The Alliance within the Western Cape are called upon to embark on action to demand a transparent and mass driven negotiating process in the Zimbabwean gridlock
7.2 Swaziland
7.2.1 The SACP has learnt with displeasure that today this country is holding what is referred to as "40/40" celebrations, meaning the 40th Anniversary of Swazi independence from Britain and Mswati's 40th Birthday. This was preceded by the King's 13 wives going on a spending spree of millions of rands in overseas countries to buy clothes in preparation of the "40/40" celebrations.
7.2.2 This is done against the background of rampant poverty that continues to reign the working class and the poor in Swaziland, unemployment and HIV and AIDS are recorded to be at the highest peak. This is a country that bans and suppresses activities of other political parties who speak against the corruption that is entrenched within the Monarchy and in government. Internationally Swaziland is recognized in comparative terms as against Zimbabwe, because according to the imperialist in Zimbabwe their interests are threatened.
7.2.3 The SACP in the Western Cape rejects these celebrations which are meant to benefit the elites whilst the plight of the working class and the poor in Swaziland is deteriorating and calls upon the Alliance structures to embark in solidarity campaigns with the people of Swaziland. The SACP also calls upon the resignation of Mswati as the head of the most important organ of SADC in Politics, Defense and Security, which is currently also involved in dealing with the political deadlock in Zimbabwe.
For further information or clarification please call Khaya Magaxa Sacp Provincial Secretary on 083 7210221 or Karl Cloete Sacp Provincial Chairperson on 083 2978757
