7th February 1999
The SACP Central Committee met in Johannesburg over the weekend of 6th and 7th February. The agenda included decisions on the SACP's role in the election campaign, participation in the trade union Job Fund campaign, and an analysis of the current situation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Elections
The CC reaffirmed the Party's commitment to throw its full weight behind the campaign for an overwhelming ANC elections victory. The CC received reports indicating that a large part of our membership is already integrated into and active in ANC elections structures. The SACP, in its own right, has set aside a budget of R1-million to do targeted electoral work amongst organised workers. In calling on workers to vote ANC, we shall be highlighting the significant gains made in the struggle for greater equity and democracy in the work-place since April 1994. The Labour Relations Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment, the Mines Safety and Security legislation, land tenure rights and the Employment Equity all underline the major gains made under an ANC government.
The SACP has built a significant base amongst the rural poor and farm-workers, at least in some provinces. We shall also give focused electoral attention to these constituencies, ensuring, in particular, that they are able to exercise their democratic rights.
Another electoral focus of the SACP will be the progressive NGO sector, students, teachers and progressive intellectuals. We shall be calling upon all progressives and all socialists, in particular, to vote ANC, and to persuade others to do so as well.
To implement this electoral programme the Party will be using all its existing resources. We shall also be employing some 25 extra organisers at the district level.
The CC calls on all South Africans who have not yet registered to do so in the coming weeks.
Trade Union Job Creation Fund
COSATU Deputy General Secretary, comrade Zwelinzima Vavi, briefed the CC on the Job Creation Fund campaign, in which workers will be contributing, on March 3rd, a day's wage for job creation. The CC welcomed the campaign with enthusiasm. It is an outstanding example of a worker-driven approach to transformation, and underlines that, notwithstanding their own often low wages, organised workers in our country have not forgotten social solidarity. The campaign is very much in line with the struggle for an RDP of the soul, called for by President Mandela in his opening of Parliament address on Friday.
Every CC member has pledged to contribute a day's wage on March 3, and the SACP will be campaigning broadly to ensure all our members and the wider public are active contributors.
Recent developments in sub-Saharan Africa
The CC also discussed the current situation in Africa, and in particular the Southern African region. Grave concern was expressed at developments in Angola. UNITA's refusal to comply with the Lusaka Protocol of 1994 lies at the heart of the collapse of the peace process. The United Nations must, however, also carry a large responsibility for this failure. Punitive measures against UNITA for non-compliance have been ineffectual and belated. The contrast with UN (and US and UK) conduct in Iraq, where minor non-compliance has twice resulted in massive and sustained bombing, is striking. Not only has UNITA systematically failed to comply with the 1994 agreements, it has even shot down two UN planes with impunity.
The CC expressed its support for the South African government position on the DRC conflict.
The CC welcomed the democratisation process under way in Nigeria, but cautioned that multi-party elections without constitutional reform and the transformation of the military would prove to be unstable. The ongoing crisis in the oil-producing Delta region also must be addressed.
President Mandela's Parliamentary Opening Address
The CC welcomed President Mandela's opening of Parliament address. In particular, the CC welcomed the strong commitment to consolidating and defending gains in worker rights over the last 5 years, and the concern the President expressed around inordinately high interest rates. The CC also aligned itself with the vision of a major effort at moral and cultural rejuvenation within our society - the call for an "RDP of the soul".
In the coming months the SACP will be campaigning around all of these issues, in line with our overall theme for 1999 - "The Year for Building and Consolidating the Political Consciousness of the Working Class".