31 May 2015
The SACP Central Committee met in Johannesburg over the weekend of 29 -31 May. The agenda included discussion of a secretariat political report that covered a number of topical issues; a discussion paper on contemporary challenges in the trade union movement; and a progress report on preparations for the SACP 7-11 July Special National Congress to be held in Soweto. The CC also engaged with an input on the future of Eskom presented by Minister of Public Enterprises, cde Lynne Brown and Eskom Acting CEO, Brian Molefe.
Contrary to one press report today, cde Brown was not “summonsed” to appear before the Central Committee. It is a long-standing practice of the Central Committee to invite cabinet ministers to our meetings to engage with the CC on their areas of work. Cde Brown graciously accepted the invitation. The comprehensive briefings by Minister Brown and Acting CEO Molefe were warmly welcomed by the CC. These inputs underlined a far-reaching congruence on our strategic perspectives on Eskom and the required short- and medium-term interventions to address Eskom’s immediate challenges. These shared perspectives are also in line with the resolutions taken by the ANC NEC lekgotla.
The key points in this regard are:
The current financial challenges confronting Eskom are not insuperable. The SACP supports an approach in which Eskom takes on bond debt - rather than selling off equity. The latter will compromise the strategic management of Eskom in the public interest.
The SACP calls on government, in line with the ANC’s NEC lekgotla resolutions, to clearly reaffirm the central role of Eskom in any future energy build, including nuclear, as well as the importance of Eskom remaining active in the field of alternative energy sources.
Minister Brown and the CC agreed that none of the above perspectives detract from the imperative of getting Eskom’s own house in order. The SACP calls on government to deal decisively with the plundering of Eskom resources by private sector suppliers of coal, diesel and much else with the connivance of some within Eskom itself.
Let us defend our democratic national sovereignty!
The defence of Eskom is an integral part of the ongoing national democratic revolution, and in particular the defence of our country’s right to democratic national sovereignty. In the discussion on both the political report and the trade union discussion paper, the CC agreed that the ongoing neo-liberal offensive against the working class and popular forces in our country needed to be characterised as a multi-faceted assault on any attempt to chart an independent developmental path. It is an assault on democratic national sovereignty based on majority rule.
The neo-liberal offensive has economic, political and ideological dimensions. Alarmed by advances made in terms of placing re-industrialisation, job creation, a major state-led infrastructural build, localisation, beneficiation and other critical policies, the neo-liberal offensive has intensified. On the economic front, since 1994 monopoly capital has actively sought to reverse working class gains through the restructuring of the work place, through segmentation of the working class, with the proliferation of labour brokering, casualisation, informalisation, mass retrenchments and the employment of vulnerable illegal immigrants. Above all, since 1994 there has been a massive capital flight through trans-nationalisaton of former South African corporates, tax evasion, transfer pricing, and dual listings. In essence, this capital flight by the beneficiaries of apartheid and white minority is a flight from democracy.
Politically, the offensive seeks to disparage any alignments, with our partners in BRICS, for instance, that provide democratic South Africa with a degree of policy and strategic manoeuvre within an otherwise hostile imperialist dominated world.
The Times Media Group (owned by mining monopoly capital), and particularly Business Day and the Financial Mail, owned by mining monopoly capital, has set itself up as the principal campaigner against any attempt at advancing a national sovereign developmental agenda. The state-led industrial policy programme, the R1-trillion public spend on infrastructure, the cancellation of usurious binational treaties that locked SA into financial serfdom are all targets of sustained hostile attack as are the progressive cabinet ministers who have been leading these processes. The SACP is heartened by the steadfastness of government in facing down these attacks.
Emulating the right-wing Republican Tea Party, our local neo-liberals seek to portray government, or at least the executive, as inherently and incorrigibly bloated and corrupt. Social movements, many with progressive intent, wittingly or unwittingly, play into the same agenda, setting themselves up as “watch-dogs” and litigious agencies funded from abroad. Corruption in government is, quite correctly, campaigned against, but often with scant attention paid to corruption, corporate collusion and white collar crime.
Parts of the judiciary, an important but in many respects a still largely untransformed pillar of our constitutional democracy, are applauded when they over-reach into executive functions, but little is said about the persistence of a two-tier judicial system where wealth buys access to courts and legal defence. When a handful of MPs decide to indulge in hooliganism and seek to render parliament dysfunctional, sections of the media applaud and the courts, which are correctly meticulous in defending dignity within their own spaces, appear to be indifferent about the challenge confronting parliamentary official and the wilful undermining of the institution of parliament.
Root out corruption and tenderpreneurship in government and within the ranks of our movement
The CC was very clear that space is given to the neo-liberal attack on national sovereignty by weaknesses, tenderpreneuring and corporate capture of our own formations. The politics of money and the factional control of membership cards and attendance records has entrenched itself in many branch structures especially in our ally, the ANC.
This behaviour is, in effect, a betrayal of the national democratic revolution and of the values of our movement.
Back to basics in the trade union movement
The Central Committee reiterated its support to the efforts of COSATU and its affiliates to rebuild worker unity on the basis of service to members, worker democracy, and collective leadership. Cults of personality and unprincipled attempts to use unions and union funds to launch personal political ambitions are not helpful to the cause of worker unity and union strength.
On the Nkandla
The CC notes the report tabled on Thursday by the Minister of Police, cde Nathi Nhleko. It is important to remember that this is a report that is responding to a request from a parliamentary committee and it must still be thoroughly debated in parliament. The CC does not wish, at this point, to enter into a debate on the merits or otherwise of security requirements and financial responsibilities.
However, we wish to reiterate the consistent position we have adopted throughout. The costs of the security upgrades to the President’s private residence are unacceptable and there has clearly been gross inflation of both the scope of work and of the costs involved.
In part, this has been due to the failure of government to implement a 2003 cabinet decision to establish clear norms and standards for residential upgrades for sitting and former state presidents. This open-endedness has clearly been exploited by unscrupulous private contractors and by state officials manipulating supply chain processes. This failure must now be corrected as a matter of urgency - we cannot have a repeat of this embarrassment in the future.
The SACP welcomes moves undertaken by the Department of Public Works to discipline officials in that department and its call for criminal charges to be laid against some former officials and private contractors. The SACP calls on the security cluster in government to indicate whether there is any attempt from that side to investigate officials and former officials in the relevant departments.
Zionist Israel
The SACP CC expressed concern at the relatively weak response from government following the refusal of the Israeli government to allow cde Blade Nzimande to travel to the occupied Palestinian territories via Jordan in his official capacity as a South African minister of state. No sovereign government with diplomatic relations with another state can allow the latter to determine which state ministers are acceptable and which are not. We call on government to rectify this matter urgently. The arrogance of the Zionist apartheid state in this matter is another reason to reinforce the all-round campaign to boycott the regime.
Issued by the SACP
Contact: Mhlekwa Nxumalo:Acting Spokesperson
Office:011 339 3621/2
Mobile:072 51 777 61 or082 837 0530
Twitter:@SACP1921