BDFM Online
Thursday, November 23, 2006
SOUTH African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande is expected to table a hard-hitting political report when the party's top brass gather tomorrow for an extended central committee meeting in Johannesburg.
"On the opening day, Nzimande will table the political report, which focuses on an SACP political assessment of the year 2006 and lays the basis for an SACP approach to 2007," the party said in a statement yesterday. "The report pays attention to key moments in 2006 and taking forward the strategy and tactics of the SACP in the contemporary period."
The SACP has been at the forefront of mass campaigns to mobilise the poor on credit amnesty, land reform, the financial-services charter and greater access to public transport. Provincial secretaries of the SACP will also attend the meeting.
Topping the agenda will be discussion on its relationship with state power, including a frank look at its election chances separate from ruling alliance leader the African National Congress (ANC).
The SACP's old guard is in favour of retaining the status quo, despite unhappiness about the party's perceived marginalisation in the alliance on key policy matters.
However, the Young Communist League has said the chances of the alliance remaining as is are slim. The league has been agitating for a more independent stance and going it alone in the next municipal elections.
League chairman David Masondo told reporters last week the league would use its congress next month to decide whether the tripartite alliance in its current format was the best vehicle to drive the democratic movement.
The ANC policy conference is also on the agenda because it is regarded as the first push for policy changes biased towards the poor.
The SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions blame conservative economic policies, saying a capitalist element had hijacked the ANC's economic policy processes. It is expected that the policy gathering next July will be a curtain-raiser for the ANC's elective conference in December, when President Thabo Mbeki's successor will be elected.
The weekend's discussion will also centre on preparations for the SACP's 12th congress scheduled for next July.