7 February 2014
The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the announcement today by Comrade Jacob Zuma, President of the African National Congress (ANC) and Republic of South Africa, of 7 May 2014 as the date for our fifth democratic elections. The SACP is committed to deepening, advancing and defending democracy in our country. As the SACP we have fought hard for democracy in South Africa for 73 years since the founding of our Party in 1921 until 1994 when we achieved a democratic breakthrough, working together with our allies the ANC, the progressive trade union movement - now Congress of South African Trade Unions in a revolutionary national liberation movement comprising of many other formations of our mass democratic movement.
After 1994 the SACP remained at the helm of deepening, advancing and defending democracy in South Africa through the national democratic revolution and its vanguard role and leadership in the struggle for socialism. At the centre of this struggle is the displacement of the capitalist class from the position of ruling class and its replacement by the working class as the new ruling class on a democratic basis. It is through the achievement of socialism that our democracy will for the first time reach its highest level, which will eliminate capitalist exploitation - and with it class inequality, unemployment and poverty, and deliver a better life for all on a sustainable basis. As the SACP we believe that our national democratic revolution, whose programme is the Freedom Charter, represents the most suited path to achieving the basis of an indispensable advance to socialism.
The SACP reaffirms its confidence in the ANC`s organisational leadership of our revolutionary alliance based on our shared perspective of the national democratic revolution with the working class as the main motive force. It is through this organisational leadership that South Africa is today a better place to live in than before 1994. Through the ANC-led government since 1994 we have achieved many advances and made a remarkable progress in transforming our society for the better. However, there is more that still needs to be done to achieve the goals of the Freedom Charter based on the principles of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society in which prosperity is socialised rather than privatised to a few.
The SACP urges everyone who is eligible to vote, especially the youth and first time voters, to go out to register to vote this last voter registration weekend: 8-9 February 2014. The SACP also calls on those who have registered to verify and confirm their registration status and those who would like to change their voting stations based on changes in their physical addresses to do so.
Let us deepen, advance, defend and take responsibility for our democracy! Let us register to vote for the ANC!
Alex Mashilo - Spokesperson
Mobile: 082 9200 308
Office: 011 339 3621
Email: alexmashilo.sacp@gmail.com