The South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Mpumalanga Province held a joint bilateral meeting at COSATU House in eMalahleni on Tuesday, 7 February 2023. SACP Provincial Working Committee members and COSATU Provincial Office Bearers attended the meeting.
The socialist axis of the Alliance convened the meeting to assess the work jointly conducted by the two working-class organisations and to further strengthen this relationship.
There are several challenges that pose a threat to the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). The challenges are rolling back the gains of our 1994 democratic breakthrough. This needs a strong, popular Left front to confront.
The NDR is a common struggle to confront and do away with class, race and gender contradictions. The ANC, as the leading component of the Alliance in consultation and working together with the SACP and COSATU, should adopt policies that are of benefit to the majority of our people, the workers and poor. Given the problems affecting the ANC, including policy failures, and with the Alliance still not reconfigured, the NDR is not on track.
On the Energy Crisis
The ongoing load-shedding, which resulted from wrong policy choices and their failures, deeply worries the SACP and COSATU. Load-shedding has a negative impact and is a serious threat to the livelihoods of the workers and poor.
Also, co-operatives and small businesses find it difficult to survive under load-shedding conditions.
Load-shedding compromises safety and security in our communities. While every person, regardless of gender, is affected, women are the most affected in the context of patriarchal attitudes and gender-based violence. Load-shedding is rolling back the gains we have made in the fight against gender-based violence and femicide in our communities, as well as other gains from the 1994 democratic breakthrough.
Mpumalanga Province is the home of power generation in South Africa. The province is host to many coal mines and coal-fired power stations.
If not managed properly and if it is unjust, the energy transition will affect the economy and the workers in the coal mines and coal-fired power stations badly. To avoid this situation, a just transition will protect the economy, employment, workers’ rights and create additional employment to tackle unemployment.
If declared, the National State of Disaster on Energy should not be used to finish off Eskom’s productive capacity in favour of the neoliberal shift from a producer state to a procurer state that favours procurement of energy from private profit-driven interests. The state needs to drive investment in Eskom to increase its productive capacity and ensure that it is better than under the apartheid regime.
The government should ensure that Eskom fixes its existing power plants and maintains them to original equipment manufacturer specifications while investing in Eskom to increase its productive capacity to be greater than it was under apartheid.
The SACP and the development of its vanguard role
The SACP, as a working-class party, should deepen its role in society, with greater capacity and also continue to strive to unite the working-class to play a leading role in the NDR.
With the SACP playing its role, the working-class needs to confront the discourse by the beneficiaries of apartheid and others who are determined to reverse the gains of our democracy through neoliberalism.
To do this, the SACP must, together with the progressive trade union movement, continue to build a popular Left front and advance its resolution to forge a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor.
In developing its vanguard capacity and role, the SACP needs to continuously ensure that the ideas of socialism are widely debated and gain hegemony in the ranks of and are driven by the working-class with maximum unity.
Reconfiguration of the Alliance
The SACP and COSATU have been, for some time now, pushing the reconfiguration of the ANC-headed Alliance. This reconfiguration should not be misunderstood as being narrowly concerned with the deployment of SACP and COSATU leaders in the echelons of the government. While it is important to work together as allies in every centre of power that we win together, at the centre of the reconfiguration are the democratic principles of consensus-seeking consultation on all major questions and policies, collective leadership and accountability on implementing the NDR.
We cannot be allies who campaign together to win elections in an electoral strategy led by the ANC and then not have democratic consultation on policy content and direction and not work together after the elections, including in our relationship to the state as a key centre of power.
The reconfiguration should, among others, mean going back to the roots, recommitting ourselves to the goals of the NDR and its basic programme, the Freedom Charter. This means that the Alliance partners should work in unison, understanding that they are equal in the Alliance.
State of local government in our municipalities
The SACP and COSATU are deeply concerned about the state of our municipalities. Poor service delivery to the people will have negative consequences. It has already led to a number of service delivery protests, some of which are led by faceless individuals or factionalists in the context of divisions. We need to do a thorough analysis on this as the Alliance, fully appreciating that some protests are driven by genuine concerns in our communities.
Eswatini and counterrevolutionaries
The struggle for democracy in Eswatini is faced with difficult challenges. These include the incarceration and the assassination of democracy activists, including advocate Thulani Maseko.
The visit to Eswatini by Deputy President David Mabuza and the statement that followed from within the ANC were contradictory. This needs to be paid attention to by the ANC.
The ANC-led government needs to distance itself from anything or any association that suggests it supports the autocracy of Mswati. Instead, South Africa should support the transition to democracy in Eswatini.
Working relations
The SACP and COSATU have committed themselves to continue and deepen joint programmes, including joint consultative sessions.
The meeting also called for the annual alliance summit with all the partners. This will help in dealing with issues that stand in the way of Alliance reconfiguration.
Issued by Mpumalanga SACP and COSATU Province
Enquiries
Lucky Mbuyane
SACP Provincial Secretary
082 351 5804
David Mokoena
COSATU Provincial Secretary
07 750 2041
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