Declaration of the SACP Philip Radebe District council held on the 23rd October 2010 at Elijah Mango College of Education

23 October 2010

We the cadres of the Party drawn from all branches within Philip Radebe district convened on this day of the 23rd October 2010 as the district council to reflect on the political environment with a view to chart a way-forward as part of our historical tasks of advancing, deepening and defending the National Democratic Revolution for socialism.

We are conscious of the significance of this month in the calendar of the SACP and communism in general. The month of October is very important because the proletariat seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in 1917 in Russia still resonates to this day. That gives us strength to continue with our struggle to resolve the challenges confronting humanity by pursuing with vigor our vision for a socialist South Africa and a socialist world order.

We are inspired by the outcome of the ANC NGC which fundamentally restored the importance of revolutionary discipline as a guiding principle in our conduct of struggle. On our part as the left we will continue to engage in the struggle to defend the progressive character of the ANC and all its Conference resolutions.

We also take comfort in its re-affirmation of the relevance of the revolutionary Alliance within the NDR. We welcome the Local Government Turnaround Strategy as the basis to transform this sphere of governance in particular as it relates to integrated human settlements. We hold a view that a successful implementation of the strategy will arrest many challenges prevailing within the sphere as harshly demonstrated by the recent community protests.

We welcome the ANC NGC process established to deal with the debate on nationalization. We commit to engage in the debate in the context of socializing ownership of the means of production. This will expose and isolate any demagogic campaign for nationalization which does not respond to critical questions of nationalization for who, by whom.

We declare to intensify our work in partnership with all progressive formations to expose and fight against corruption as a scourge against society. We regard corruption and its perpetrators as counter revolutionary. We declare to play our meaningful role in advancing our Red October campaign whose theme is “Financing Development- With and for the Workers and the Poor” as the basis to transform the financial sector. We will also take forward our strategy on co-operatives.

We note the anti-SACP and working class tendency within the liberation movement. We therefore commit to expose and fight against this tendency and thus defeat its posture of narrow nationalism manifesting itself as Africanism and distorting the character of the NDR led by the ANC.

We note with regret the continued killings in the province. We view these killings as having serious negative political implications. In that context we condemn with strongest possible terms the high jacking of the MEC for Human Settlements and CC member of our Party Cde Madala Masuku recently. We call on the police to decisively deal with this matter.

We declare to enhance our political work within trade unions particularly COSATU from which we predominantly draw our membership.

We recognize the centrality of our internal capacity to implement our political programme. To that end we commit to radically implement our MTV and SARS programme of asserting working class power in all sites of power by among others establishing 100 active and functioning branches by December 2010. Therefore for purposes of smooth coordination and operational efficiency, three DEC members are mandated to coordinate this work in the three sub-districts (local municipalities) i.e Nkomazi, Mbombela and Umjindi municipalities.

We declare that as we draw closer to the Local Government Elections in 2011, we will campaign robustly for the decisive victory of the ANC in all municipalities. However within the context of our 12th National Congress resolutions of contesting elections within the context of the reconfigured Alliance, we declare not to compromise on the SACP representativity in all municipalities. To this end we will not only engage the ANC, but we will do our work on the ground to achieve that outcome.

We noted challenges with regard to the ward re-demarcation process particularly as it demonstrate narrow interest and a potential to compromise service delivery. Accordingly we will engage the ANC with a view to intervene on this process.

As we adjourn our Council, we commit to convene a conference of commissars to concretely programmatize the resolutions of the National Conference of Commissars.

Issued by SACP Phillip Radebe Distric

Contact:
Bhobert Nkosi
Phillip Radebe District Secretary
072 520 1647

Or

Sizwe Motha
Phillip Radebe District Spokesperson
082 448 9698