SACP Mpumalanga September PEC Statement
15 September 2015
Asserting the Party as a vanguard of the working class and the poor.
The SACP in Mpumalanga Province convened its ordinary plenary session on Sunday, 13 September 2015 at eMalahleni. The meeting dealt with contemporary political developments provincially, nationally and international.
The meeting acknowledged the strength and growth of the SACP in this 94th year of its unbroken service of struggle for our people, the majority of whom is the working class.
The province will launch its membership recruitment drive on Sunday, 20 September 2015 in Gert Sibande District. This will be steeled in a thoroughgoing process of renewal through the launch of a new cycle of annual political education and ideological training process to continuously upgrade the quality of our Partys membership.
State of the alliance in the province:
The SACP remains committed to a united and coherent alliance. However, the Party will never succumb to the dictatorship of the lumpen-tenderpreneurs who disregard the importance of this alliance and are dedicated at liquidating it by their agenda to liquidate its other components. The lack of political will to resolve the current challenges in the alliance in Mpumalanga province and in our communities has created unnecessary doubts at the grassroots and needs to be dealt with decisively.
The starting point is for the national alliance summit declaration for provinces to convene provincial alliance summit and Mpumalanga must now move into practice. The unity of the alliance is sacrosanct with a mutual respect for all components.
The calls for the release of the report commissioned by the ANC Veterans on the KaNyamazane attacks. We are not going to rest until the hooligans who assaulted our comrades are exposed and brought to book.
On the National Democratic Revolution
The theory of the national democratic revolution has been at centre of what unites and directs our revolution and the components that form part of the revolutionary alliance. The national democratic revolution is under threat from an emergence of opportunist groupings that that undermine the unity and cohesion of the liberation alliance. This will never, be left, unchallenged!
The groupings united in the agenda to undermine the unity of our alliance are motivated by self-serving interests of private accumulation of wealth using control over public service opportunities and state tenders.
There is a symbiotic relationship between institutionalised factionalism, corruption and attempts at corporates capture of our movement as a gateway to the capture of the state. Factions exist in order to gain access to state resources.
The state is seen as a tool to be captured to feed the narrow economic interests of the leading factionalists and to feed their patronage networks to build their support base. This agenda, left unchallenged, will bring down our movement and depose it from its leadership position in our society!
Political Killings in the province:
The PEC reiterated its call to the relevant authorities and law enforcement agencies to speedily deal with the investigations and release of the reports on political killings executed in Mpumalanga province. The SACP believes that, these killings are linked with the corruption that is ravaging our provincial government, municipalities and government entities and undermining service delivery. The PEC reaffirmed its commitment to fight against rampant corruption and political killings in the province.
We appreciate the good work done by the NPA re-instating the Bomber Ntshangase case which is scheduled to continue on 14 October 2015 at Bethal Magistrate Court. We are calling upon our structures to come in numbers and demand for the kingpins who are responsible for this killing to be arrested as soon as possible.
On Police Killings:
The PEC is deeply concerned with the growing killings of police. More than 60 police officers have been killed this year alone. Most of these killings happen when police are responding to the needs of the public.
Government must develop a clear long-term plan to combat these acts - which undermine the authority of the democratic developmental state that the national democratic revolution seeks to build.
The SACP will work closely with the progressive trade union POPCRU to develop awareness in our communities about the implications and dangers of police killings and the need to stand together to fight crime and corruption.
2016 Local Government Elections:
The SACP in Mpumalanga province has launched its elections campaign for the 2016 local government elections on 23 August during the partys 94th anniversary rally. Next month the SACP will launch the Red Brigades as part of our alliance electoral machinery.
The SACP in Mpumalanga province has however noted with concern the disregard of processes for councillor nominations to be halted.
The elections campaign and process must be guided by a clear framework and principles for comrades who their communities want as councillors are not marginalised on the basis of factionalism and patronage.
International Context:
On Swaziland:
The Swazilands absolute monarchy has entrenched itself through culture and religion. It has deepened its control over the cabinet, legislation and judiciary. The Southern African Development Corporation (SADC) has not played a vital role to intervene in the Swaziland question.
We condemn the inhumane behaviour by King Mswati, who continued with the reed dance despite the truck accident which claimed about 38 innocent girls and ultimately 65. We cannot imagine the year that the tyrant ascended as the head of SADC region with this kind of character that undermines human rights.
We will strengthen our campaign to call for the unconditional release of political prisoners, unbanning of political parties and ultimately democracy in Swaziland. We reiterate our call for the South African government to give the Swaziland political exiles a permanent asylum status.
On the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, DPRK:
The U.S. led imperialism use South Korea to advance its agenda of aggression. Although, DPRK and South Korea averted a full-scale military confrontation and agreed to improve ties after a rare exchange of artillery fire over their heavily fortified border, tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high. We will continue with our solidarity programmes we historically shared with the DPRK Embassy.
On China:
This past week, China celebrated and commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of what it calls the Peoples War on Resistance against Japanese Aggression to mark the end of its involvement in the Second World War.
China remains a strategic and tactical country for South Africa to strengthen its trade relations with.
Issued by SACP Mpumalanga
Enquiries:
Bonakele Majuba - Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 082 968 4877
Lesetja Dikgale - Provincial Spokesperson
Mobile: 076 869 4360
