24 May 1998.
The Sunday Times front-page lead article. "Blow to ANC's election hopes" is another example of the market-driven sensationalism we have learnt to expect from this newspaper. The article mischievously pits together the results of the recent Markinor opinion poll, on electoral support for political parties, with an interview conducted with SACP deputy general secretary, Jeremy Cronin.
The article is mischievous in three ways.
The views expressed by our deputy general secretary are not personal views, but a summary of a small proportion of the perspectives contained in the SACP's Central Committee discussion documents in the run up our Party's July 1-5 Congress.
The interview with our deputy general secretary was about the Party's Congress, and was conducted before the Markinor poll results were announced. The SACP was not jumping onto an opportune band wagon, as the article seeks to imply.
The concerns expressed in our discussion documents are not SACP criticisms of the ANC, but a stock-taking of collective successes and short comings since April 1994, for which the SACP accepts joint responsibility as an active member of the liberation movement. When we assess governance, for instance, we are speaking of thousands of communist party members who are, together with their non-communist comrades, in national, provincial and local level government structures.
The SACP, which has been the consistent victim of this kind of sensationalist disinformation, remains persuaded that an honest and open discussion of the strengths and shortcomings of our ANC-led liberation movement is a matter of public concern for all South Africans. It is the ANC and its broader movement alone that are capable of unifying our country and of carrying forward the transformation promise of April 1994. No other political formation has the responsibility for the future of our country in its hands.
We call on media- workers, even those in the Sunday Times, to understand their responsibility to South Africa at large to provide effective information on the discussions and debates going on within the SACP, and within the broader ANC led alliance.
For the part, the SACP reaffirms its commitment to helping to build a powerful, mass based ANC led liberation movement. We are confident that the ANC will score a major election victory in 1999.
Issued by
SACP Head Office