21 May 2004
The South African Communist Party (SACP) regards today's State of the Nation Address by President Thabo Mbeki as having set the momentum and tone for transformation and delivery of the mandate of the 3rd democratic parliament and the government that he leads.
We are particularly pleased with the focus of the speech on micro-economic interventions based on an understanding that the tackling of poverty and underdevelopment cannot be separated from economic growth. This is in line with the developmental approach of linking economic growth together with development.
We also welcome the President's announcement that government will table in parliament the Draft Co-operatives' Bill and that credit will be extended to small farmers and co-operatives. These announcements are a significant boost to the efforts of many of our people to find solutions to the economic crisis we face as a country. As the SACP, we have been actively campaigning for the creation of a conducive environment for the development of co-operatives.
We welcome the President's commitment that the agreement reached at the June 2003 Growth and Development Summit must be implemented including ensuring that 5% of investable income is invested in development, job creation and poverty eradication. The President's comments on the financial sector underline the correctness and validity to the SACP-led campaign to make banks serve the people. This commitment must now be used to give impetus to discussions at NEDLAC to review progress in the implementation of the August 2002 Financial Sector Summit. In this context, the Financial Sector Charter must be evaluated in terms of this 2002 agreement.
The SACP also welcomes the emphasis by the President on the need to strengthen the public sector and parastatals in the delivery of infrastructure and generally playing a strategic role in economic growth and development as state-owned enterprises. In the view of the SACP, a strong, efficient, democratic and accountable public sector is central in meeting the needs of the workers and the poor and in ensuring that the state can play its strategic role in the economy.
We also welcome the targets of electrifying every house in South Africa by 2009, the extension of the social security system and the commitment to strengthen and build the capacity of municipalities to deliver services.
All of this requires ongoing mobilisation and contact with the mass of our people as engine drivers of transformation and delivery. Mass mobilisation must buttress pro-poor and pro-worker policies of government. In turn, government must deepen its contact with the mass of our people in order that its own programmes are people-driven and people-led. The role of the ANC-led alliance is critical in this regard.
The President's speech squarely places a challenge on the private sector which up to now has failed manifestly to invest its super-profits in job creation, poverty eradication and in building sustainable livelihoods. Mass mobilisation and state power are required to put pressure on private capital in South Africa. The SACP will play its role in this regard.
ISSUED BY BLADE NZIMANDE, SACP GENERAL SECRETARY
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Head of the Office of the General Secretary
South African Communist Party
Tel - + 27 11 339 3621,
Fax - +27 11 339 4244/6880
Cell - +83 651 0271
Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za;
WEBSITE - www.sacp.org.za