5 July 2016
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has acted decisively against unauthorised and fraudulent use of its symbols, its name and that of its leadership. This after it came to the attention of the SACP yesterday, Monday 4 July that there were individuals registered in various but a few municipalities in its name to contest the 3 August local government elections. In response, the SACP immediately wrote to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to expunge the use of its name and symbols from the list of political parties that fielded candidates. Simultaneously, the SACP prepared papers to approach the Electoral Court on an urgent basis to wipe out the use of its name and symbols from the list of parties that fielded candidates, or alternatively to interdict the IEC from proceeding with its scheduled printing of ballot papers until the removal was done.
The matter was expeditiously resolved with the IEC and the SACP withdrew the court challenge. The SACP National Officials who met yesterday in Johannesburg welcomed the resolution, believing that the IEC will strengthen its mechanisms to prevent similar phenomena towards the SACP or any other political party.
While the SACP is registered as a political party in terms of the law, it has not fielded any candidate to stand for the local government elections in isolation from our liberation alliance and its electoral strategy of the necessity for broad unity of our people as led by the African National Congress (ANC). It is through this unity that as a people we defeated the apartheid regime in 1994 after decades of struggle.
As we declared in our political programme the South African Road to Socialism adopted at our Party's 13th National Congress in 2012, the modalities of the SACP's participation in elections are not a matter of timeless principle. In this regard there are three fundamental principles that will continue to guide us. Firstly, the SACP is a vanguard party of socialism, and not a narrowly electoralist formation. Secondly, our approach to elections will be guided in this phase of the struggle by our overall strategic commitment to advancing, deepening and defending the national democratic revolution - the South African road to socialism. Lastly, our strategic objective in regard to state power is to secure not party political but working class hegemony over the state.
To the people of our country, the workers, the poor, the youth, women, the middle class, urban and rural, the SACP says:
"Together we can fight inequality, unemployment and poverty!"
"Vote ANC on 3 August."
Issued by the SACP
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