SACP Address to Chris Hani Memorial Rally, Thembisa, 20 April 2008
Blade Nzimande, General Secretary
As we gather here today to remember and honour the memory of our late General Secretary, Cde Chris Hani, our key challenge is that of reclaiming, defending and honouring the revolutionary traditions of our Congress Movement and its allied formations. This is the task of the moment, fifteen years after the cowardly assassination of this great hero of our revolution, and 14 years into our democracy for which he laid his life.
The SACP refuses to let the memory of Cde Chris Hani and his ideas to die! Since his assassination, the SACP has officially declared every April as Chris Hani Month. On this 15th anniversary, we re-commit ourselves to intensify working class struggles on all fronts and to take immediate action on issues affecting the workers and the poor. This is part of deepening a working class democratic transformation process, and concretising our slogan ‘Socialism is the Future, Build it Now’!
A tribute to Cde Ncumisa Kondlo
We are also this month bidding farewell to one of the most outstanding women communists, Cde Ncumisa Kondlo – a brave fighter, a revolutionary, a gender activist and a truly humble communist. As we say farewell to this heroine, we shall honour her memory by deepening the struggles for women’s emancipation and gender equality as an integral part of the struggle for socialism.
In honour of the enormous contribution that Cde Ncumisa played in building progressive teacher and student organisations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the SACP commits itself to deepening mass organisation on the education front. Our cadres will be at the forefront of building the local education committees agreed to by our Alliance.
Defend the living standards of the workers and the poor! Intensify the struggle against high prices!
We are in a period in which our revolution continues to be characterised by thoroughly contradictory realities. On the one hand, there has been some significant progress in consolidating our democracy and addressing some of the pressing socio-economic challenges facing the majority of our people but, on the other hand, a colonial type economy continues to grow.
Since our 1994 democratic breakthrough, an occasion brought about in the wake of Cde Chris’ assassination, the ANC-led government has made a number of advances, many of which Cde Hani would have been proud of. These include housing for masses of the poor, increased provision of clean water, expanded social grants and creation of democratic institutions through which our people can shape their own destiny.
We welcome these achievements as things that Cde Chris – a true champion of the workers and the poor - lived and died for, and which other communists have also helped to bring about.
We are celebrating Chris Hani month this year in the wake of one of the worst capitalist assaults on the already unacceptable living standards of the workers and the poor of our country. The current assault seriously threatens to erode the many modest gains made by our revolution since 1994.
We seem to have moved from one frontal assault of massive retrenchments and casualisation of the working class to another of steep price hikes and price fixing, all seriously lowering the standard of living of millions of our people.
The latest assault on the workers and the poor is, amongst other things, characterised by the following:
High food prices
We are witnessing an astronomical rise in the price of food, including basic foodstuffs like bread and mealie-meal. These high prices are already worsening hunger in our poor urban and rural communities. We are also seeing food producers colluding to fix prices, which essentially amounts to the rich robbing the poor!
The SACP has consistently called for stiffer penalties and even criminal charges against those involved in price-fixing.
In line with Chris Hani’s understanding of socialism as the meeting of all the basic needs of our people, the SACP will commemorate Chris Hani Month by embarking on mass action to highlight and challenge price-fixing.
The SACP welcomes the new legislation aimed at expropriating land as a means to accelerate the transfer of land, especially agricultural land, to the majority of our people so that they can be producers of their own food.
The SACP will also use this Chris Hani month to call upon government to urgently convene the national farm-workers and farm-dwellers summit that was agreed to at the ANC’s Polokwane Conference.
Electricity pricing and the energy crisis
The SACP strongly condemns the planned electricity tariff hikes Eskom is demanding, as well as the support given by government to this totally unjust measure. The rise in electricity tariffs will worsen the misery of our people, thus further lowering their standard of living.
The SACP is totally opposed to solutions that punish our people for problems they did not create. The current load shedding is a direct result of the failure of government to invest in Eskom, due to its planned privatisation of state entities in the late 1990s. Government and Eskom must take full responsibility for our current energy crisis.
To this end, we support the call by COSATU for a moratorium on this planned electricity tariff rise, and reiterate our call for a national energy summit to emerge with a comprehensive response and policy on energy.
Part of the strategy to respond to our energy crisis MUST include expansion of electricity connections to poor areas of our country. We shall not allow the current crisis to compromise our commitment of ultimately ensuring that every South African has an electricity connection. At the same time, we should be aiming towards providing every South African with alternative, reliable, safe and inexpensive energy sources, such as solar power.
High fuel prices
The SACP is extremely concerned about the impact of the rising fuel prices on the living standards of our people. High oil and fuel prices have a huge negative impact on transport costs and access to basic necessities like paraffin, on which many of our people rely as a source of energy.
We have consistently pointed out that although we produce about 40% of our fuel through SASOL, we are still being charged for oil and petrol at the international price. SASOL shareholders reap billions in profits.
During this Chris Hani month we shall be reiterating our call for the re-nationalisation of SASOL. SASOL is a national strategic entity, and therefore must revert to state hands.
High costs of private health care
Many workers belong to medical aid schemes, and given the poor state of our public health system, use private health facilities. The escalating costs in the private health care industry are putting a huge strain on medical schemes, thus making access to health even more difficult.
The Minister of Health must be supported by all progressive forces in her plans to immediately regulate the private health care sector. This includes regulating user fees.
The SACP will also embark on demonstrations against private hospitals during this month in support of the Minister, and also demand that all emergency cases be stabilised at the nearest health facility, irrespective of whether it is private or public, and irrespective of whether such patients have medical aid or not!
Inflation targeting and high interest rates
On top of all the above expenses, the rising interest rates further erode the living standards of our people.
The SACP rejects the fact that it is the workers and the poor who are the ones who have to pay the price for the ‘sins’ of the wealthier sections of society. We are calling for a revision of the inflation target and will also be tabling this matter very strongly in the forthcoming Alliance Summit.
Solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe
The SACP wishes to express its full solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, especially the harsh socio-economic conditions they are facing. We are also deeply concerned about the increase in reported incidents of violence seemingly directed by the state against opposition leaders and supporters. The reported violence seems to be directed at intimidating people ahead of a possible re-run of the Presidential election. This surely is a sign of a former liberation movement that has lost touch with its own former constituency.
As we gather here, the workers and the poor of Zimbabwe continue to wait for the results of its election results, including the Presidential elections. What is happening there is totally unacceptable. Democracy delayed is democracy denied!
We also find it deeply disturbing that a recount is ordered and undertaken when the official results have not been results. This is nothing more than a sham, and is tantamount to interfering with the electoral process. ZANU-PF needs to understand and acdcept that if you have a multi-party democracy, you may win or lose elections.
A distinct feature of post independence ZANU-PF political habit and practice is that it tends to wholly blame any political challenge and difficulty on imperialism, even where some of its difficulties maybe an outcome of its own internal weaknesses, requiring introspection and self criticism. As a result such an attitude has closed the very necessary inner-party debate and discussion on critical questions relating to the strategy and tactics of a former liberation movement in power.
Defend the mandate and role of the Public Service Broadcaster and its capacity to reach the workers and the Poor
As we gather to honour the memory of Cde Chris Hani, the SACP is concerned about what is going on at the SABC, about what appears to be a serious stand-off between the board and management. We are deeply concerned because what the SABC should be busying itself with is to strengthen its role as a public broadcaster.
We wish to strongly condemn what appears to be a secretive plot by some members of the board to undertake far-reaching changes at the SABC outside of public view. To us this is nothing but an attempt by those in government and in the past ANC leadership who imposed this SABC board on Parliament’s portfolio committee, to further entrench their control of the SABC ahead of a new ANC government in 2009.
The SABC News Division has also become a shame and has positioned itself factionally inside our organisation and become a mouthpiece of all those seen to be opposed to the current leaderships of our alliance formations.
The cloud under which this SABC board was appointed is enough reason for all members of the Board to resign and for a new Board to be appointed through a more transparent and legitimate process.
We cannot have a narrow BEE-type, elitist Board at the expense of the representation of the workers and the poor on such a Board. The SABC belongs to the overwhelming majority of our people and not the elite and its interests.
If the current board members do not resign, we call upon Parliament to amend the relevant legislation in order to correct such errors now and in the future. If we have legislation to remove a President, cabinet and other heads of public institutions why can’t we have similar legislation to redress unanticipated imbalances in a board of a public service broadcaster?
As we remember Cde Hani we need intensify struggles to protect and defend the role and mandate of the Public service Broadcaster in the same way as we have done with our campaign for accessible public transport and public health services.
Our campaign for affordable and accessible public health system
The SACP is using the month of April to intensify its campaign on this front. Cde Hani was passionate about the struggle for a free and well-resourced public health system. We will continue with our campaign of visiting public health institutions. We will work towards the formation of strong and democratic community health forums and hospital boards.
We call for an end to the outsourcing of services in our hospitals, and for outsourced services to be returned to the public sector. Such outsourcing has not only lowered the quality of services in our public hospitals, but is also a source of widespread corruption in the award of tenders. In many instances, we seem to have placed the objectives of narrow BEE above quality public health services for our people.
The SACP is strongly opposed to the downgrading of public health facilities located in poor communities. The transfer of key services from community hospitals into hospitals based in city centres has the danger of seriously depriving our people of accessible and affordable health care, as is the case with the downgrading of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane.
The SACP is committed to continuing with the struggle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and further commits to work with government, the trade union movement, our communities and all other progressive organisations in confronting this scourge. A well-resourced, affordable and accessible public health care system is central in the struggle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The Chris Hani Month is a month for escalation of mass mobilisation and activism
The President of the ANC, through the January 8 Statement, has called for the re-establishment of street and village committees throughout our country as one important weapon in fighting crime. This call is in line with our own 2008 programme of action, that of building safe communities throughout South Africa.
The SACP will therefore throw its full weight behind the building of such committees, and we call upon all our people to focus on this task. Street committees must act to reinforce and strengthen (and not replace) the community police forums.
However, such street and village committees must progressively be strengthened to act as the nucleus for broader community development in our localities. The state of our local government, lack of capacity and corruption, threatens to erode the many gains we have made on this front. Therefore, street and village committees must also act as an oversight over councillor performance and generally mobilise communities to drive development.
Indeed, the central pillar of our work in the overall struggle to advance a radical national democratic revolution is that of working class-led mass mobilisation. Like Cde Chris, the SACP believes that the answer to the many problems facing our revolution is the escalation of mass campaigns.
The SACP welcomes the outcomes of Polokwane, including the commitments in the ANC NEC January 8 statement, to strengthen and rebuild the ANC as a campaigning organisation.
We were indeed concerned that since 1994, the ANC had gradually downscaled mass mobilisation, except during election campaigns. This recommitment by the ANC to mass campaigns is a welcome development, and must be used also to rebuild our alliance from below.
Our Alliance, as Cde Oliver Tambo was fond of saying, was not an Alliance built on paper, but on joint actions to advance our struggle. The ANC can only effectively lead the Alliance through mass struggles on the ground, not through Alliance boardroom meetings and summits, important as these might be.
Indeed, the Chris Hani Month shall be a month of renewed mass mobilisation and activism!