Friday, 13 January 2006
The SACP wishes to warmly congratulate and salute the African National Congress on its 94th anniversary on January 8, 2006. The ANC?s history is truly a symbol and an embodiment of selfless struggle and dedication to the total liberation of the African people in particular and blacks in general from the yoke of national oppression and the building of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. The ANC?s proud tradition of struggle is a monument to the best that our people aspire to. The challenge there is we dare not fail our people in this regard.
As the SACP we are proud to have an ally like the African National Congress, whose leadership of our movement as a whole ensured the defeat of the apartheid regime and the building of a democratic South Africa. To us this is an occasion we need to use to celebrate and honour the finest traditions of our movement: dedication, hard work, selflessness and willingness to serve the people without expecting any personal favours or gains for its combatants. It is even more important to uphold these as exemplary values particularly in this period of rampant capitalist globalization and its neo-liberalism, which is threatening to submerge civilised human values of solidarity under imperatives of intensified class exploitation and personal accumulation.
Celebrating 94 years of the existence of the ANC must also be about the achievements of the ANC and the government it leads has, through which millions of South Africans, especially the workers and the poor, have seen some improvements to their lives. As we move towards celebration of 12 years of our democracy, this January 8 is also an important moment to reflect and seek to strengthen the alliance that the ANC heads. Despite all the achievements over the past 11 years, there are still many challenges facing our country and our young democracy. These challenges require maximum unity of the movement as a whole, including its alliance and all other democratic and progressive forces.
The most immediate challenge facing our movement is that of the forthcoming local government elections in just under three months from now. These elections are important as they are about electing local representatives of the people, thus ensuring community participation in building a better life for all. It is partly for these reasons that the SACP has adopted a Programme of Action for 2006 under the slogan: ?Communist Cadres to the Front, For People-Centred Local Economic Development?.
The SACP has adopted this slogan and programme of action as part of its own contribution in mobilising for an overwhelming ANC victory in the forthcoming local government elections. We have adopted this programme of action also because we strongly believe that we should continuously mobilise our people during and after the elections in order to ensure that they drive the programme of delivery of basic services and transforming local conditions to create a better life for all. It is the masses themselves, with the working class in the lead, that are the architects of their own history and destiny.
The ANC, as a movement and ruling party, has a particular responsibility in leading mass campaigns and ongoing mobilisation of our people to transform their own conditions. This is the single biggest challenge facing our movement this year and beyond in order to ensure that our people remain mobilised at all times. In recent times not enough of this mobilisation has been done. Much, much more still needs to be done, during and outside election periods. For the SACP this is a call that we go back to the basics, to organise and mobilise. As the SACP we pledge our loyalty to such a task and partnership in the mobilisation of our people at local level.
The ANC has correctly adopted the principle of equal representation of men and women in all its structures as well as in candidates for the forthcoming local government elections. This is an important step towards ensuring that women take their rightful place in all of South African society. However the biggest challenge in this regard remains that of ensuring that equal representation places the transformation of gender relations at the centre of our struggles. Whilst this task is equally for both men and women, but it cannot be achieved if women are not mobilised as the leading force in the struggle for gender transformation. In addition we need to ensure that equal representation between women and men is driven by a mandate that prioritises the interests of ordinary working class and poor women, both in the urban and rural areas, through a sustained struggle for gender equality. We should not allow this important principle of equal representation for both men and women to be hijacked by elitist interests, serving only the interests of women who are already better off.
The SACP?s 2006 Programme of Action also aims to focus on a critical challenge facing our revolution, that of local economic development, creation of jobs and other forms of sustainable livelihoods. We believe that local government through integrated development plans has an important role to play in this regard. Our expectation as the SACP from ANC-led municipalities is promotion of local and community economic activities, including land and agrarian transformation, building of co-operatives as well as directing and guiding local investment for jobs and poverty eradication.
We are also confident that, reflecting from our past experiences, ANC candidate councillors will be of high calibre with dedication to serve our people without expecting any personal gain or favours. It is also our considered view as the SACP that we should separate the roles of public representatives and business interests. We need to foster a cadre and a culture of public service as a worthy objective in itself, if we are to rapidly meet the challenge of creating a better life for all our people. That is why we also say celebrating 94 years of the ANC should also be an occasion to celebrate and uphold its values of solidarity, selfless and dedicated service to our people.
All in our movement are agreed that 2005 provided one of the stiffest tests for the unity of our movement and the resilience of our democracy. These challenges, principally emanating from matters related to the Deputy President of the ANC, require that we seriously reflect on all these matters and honestly discuss and draw appropriate lessons. Our movement can only be strengthened if it does not shy away from an honest analysis of this experience, but instead reflect on all its dimensions and underlying causes, so that we are able to emerge as a united force, capable of taking forward the national democratic revolution. As the SACP we shall at all times strive to preserve the unity of our movement, whilst at the same time ensuring inner debates and discussions.
We take this opportunity to salute this giant, our ally, the African National Congress on this important occasion. We call upon all communists and all our people to partake in these celebrations, as part of cementing the unity of our alliance and building a strong, campaigning and activist ANC. It is our fervent belief that our movement and its alliance can only be strengthened through unity in action, through concrete campaigns and through ongoing mobilisation of our people.
The SACP on its part will contribute towards this unity in action through actively taking up alliance campaigns as well as its own campaigns. We must make that historic statement by the late Oliver Tambo a living reality that ours is not a paper alliance, but an alliance built through struggle.
HAPPY 94 TH ANNIVERSARY
Issued by:
SACP General Secretary Dr Blade Nzimande
For Information contact
Francis Maleka
Tel: 011 339-3621
Fax: 011 339-4244
Cell: 082 863 7595
Email: malesela@sacp.org.za