Monday, 19 May 2025: - The Politburo of the South African Communist Party held its meeting on Friday, 16 May 2025 at Moses Kotane House in Marshalltown, Johannesburg. The meeting advanced the work mandated by the Fifth Special National Congress and reaffirmed by the Central Committee at its Plenary in April 2025.
The General Secretary delivered a political overview, outlining the principal tasks before the Party and the working-class programme. The Politburo also received a series of reports and presentations. These formed the basis for focused discussions on the political moment and organisational imperatives. This statement reflects the key outcomes of those deliberations.
THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE NATIONAL SITUATION
Victory Day
May is a significant month in the history of the world and of humanity. The 9th of May is observed as Victory Day, a day marking the triumph of humanity over Nazism and fascism in the Second World War. In 2025, Victory Day marks the 80th anniversary of this historic victory, to which the Soviet Union played a great role. It was the courage, discipline and revolutionary determination of the Soviet Red Army that broke the back of Nazi barbarism and secured peace for the peoples of the world.
The SACP expresses deep concern over the distortion and erasure of this decisive history.
There are deliberate efforts to diminish the leading role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazism and fascism. These falsifications serve a reactionary purpose. They aim to rewrite history in the interests of imperialist powers and to deny future generations the truth about the class character of Nazism and fascism and the force that played a profound role in defeating Nazism and fascism. The Soviet Union lost over 27 million lives in the war. This was the most profound act of internationalist sacrifice in defence of human progress. The historical truth must be defended without compromise. To undermine it is to align with the very forces that seek to rehabilitate fascism under new guises, including the Ukrainian neo-fascists and Neo-Nazis.
Cuba and Cuban revolution
The Politburo strongly condemned the criminal blockade, including illegal sanctions, imposed on Cuba by the imperialist regime of the United States. One of the important ways of furthering concrete work with Cuba is to build and extend bilateral economic and state-to-state co-operation in different areas where Cuban and South African knowledge, trade, industry and investment can be leveraged for mutual benefit and solidarity with the people of Cuba. Cuba played such a crucial role in the realisation of our independence and that of other countries in the Global South, in particular, including our continent and the Southern African region.
The education sector and the scientific, research and medical fields are four of the areas where some aspects of our country's co-operation with Cuba already exists.
In intensifying its solidarity with Cuba, the SACP will strengthen its campaign to deepen the co-operation and expand it. We call on all progressive and revolutionary working-class forces and allies across the world to intensify solidarity with the Cuban government and people.
United States's false refugee fiasco
The Politburo looked at the racist United States' refugee programme in South Africa, initiated and negotiated by South African right-wing sects with the intention of pressuring the South African government to roll back and stop democratic transformation, especially redress to undo the legacy of colonisation and apartheid.
On the part of the United States, the so-called refugee programme is part of the imperialist regime's wider reaction to South Africa's decision to refer the apartheid Israeli settler regime to the International Court of Justice. South Africa took the decision to ensure that the apartheid Israeli settler regime is held accountable for the genocide it has been committing and continues to commit on the Palestinian people.
The actions of the South African right-wing organisations are not a reflection of the real conditions in South Africa, nor do they represent any legitimate grievance on any matter of importance. The "refugee" programme of the United States government is based on a fallacy concocted by the anti-transformation forces in South Africa, intended ultimately to construct a racialised international solidarity for their benefit, underpinned by white nationalism, white supremacy and rejection of genuine democracy.
The South African delegation to Washington must emphasise the fundamental right to self-determination and democratic sovereignty. At the same time, South Africa must strengthen the development of Global South economic and political relations as a shared objective among the people in this global region. The South African government must not be found acting to promote the interests of forces whose aims are detrimental to the development and transformation of our country. Any and all engagements with the United States should foreground these principles.
While we recognise the vast factual distortions and the economic and political agenda and opportunism embedded in this action, which we repudiate in the strongest terms, we have an even greater concern related to the improper use of the term "genocide" to justify the false claim of so-called widespread murder and so-called abuse of the so-called farmers. This false narrative threatens the country and its people in a very profound way.
The terminology of "genocide" used falsely has profound diplomatic and political implications for a country like South Africa. Its effects can be detrimental to our national security and national sovereignty. The false accusation of genocide, as opposed to the real genocide committed by the apartheid Israeli settler regime on the Palestinian people, has been used by imperialist countries as a pretext to justify military or other interventions and interference for their own benefit. There are many examples where blatant falsehoods have been used to justify military or other interventions or interference. This must not be the fate of South Africa.
Threats to sovereignty in Africa
The possible threat to the national sovereignty of South Africa is not an isolated case. It is part of the risk faced by many countries in the SADC region. Abundant natural resources in the SADC region and elsewhere in Africa leave the continent exposed to foreign imperialist interference from multiple sources.
The rare earth natural resources essential to the production of modern technological inventions have increased in demand, thus creating a desperate and frantic search by international monopoly capital for resources such as these as raw materials. These natural resources are also found in the Sahel region. A great portion of the imperialist political manoeuvres must be understood in the context of these interests. This is, of course, the contemporary manifestation of the historic exploitation of Africa for raw mineral resources by former colonial powers and present-day imperialist states.
The response, in the form of the contemporary political dynamics that are taking shape in the Sahel region, manifests a revolutionary moment in the development of African politics. The actions by the Senegalese, Burkinabé, Niger and Malian states and governments have a decisive transformational potential, not only in their relationship with France but in the broader relationship between Africa and former colonial powers from the Global North.
The developments in the Sahel region are emblematic of a revolutionary sentiment present across the African continent. Part of the SACP's programme, adopted by the Politburo, is to visit and engage the people and leaders of the region with the intention of building solidarity and co-operative relations with revolutionary forces. It in the interest of revolutionaries in Africa and everywhere else that the developments in the Sahel be supported and protected from external interference.
This is because the region now effectively represents an anti-imperialist resistance frontline, coupled with real exercise of state power for the advancement of the people.
United States imperialist aggression
Imperialism continues to seek new frontiers for growth, expansion and influence, also seeking to manage an internal crisis manifesting at its most significant epicentre, the United States. The United States' economy has struggled for some time, with a crisis, among others manifesting in a remarkable increase in income inequality, rising poverty levels, the decimation of the industrial working class as well as the managerial middle class, the proliferation of ultra-wealthy sections of the tiny minority of capital, rooted in extreme financialisation, the obliteration of the social wage, and accompanying policy and political changes. These have ultimately led to the rise of right-wing, principally white supremacist, political sects a reaction to the economic crisis.
The Trump administration's response to the crisis has included the promulgation of extreme executive orders, purportedly aimed at addressing the collapse of industrial capacity in the United States. Some of these executive orders created a network of tariffs designed to engineer a reorganisation of market forces to the United States's advantage. The effects of this tariff regime have included the systematic disruption of the World Trade Organization system, international trade and rule of law, thereby calling into question, in the short term, the applicability and enforceability of trade rules. The tariffs serve as instruments for transactional negotiations by the United States government. However, this manoeuvre has a limited potential to restore a competitive industrial capacity in the United States, for a variety of structural reasons, not least of which is the country's legacy of neo-liberal policy framework.
The fate of AGOA and other trade agreements to which smaller economies have had access lies within this overarching framework of tariffs, which have now been weaponised and deployed as tools of transactional bargaining in line with the economic ambitions of the United States in the trade war it has started. As things stand, these tariffs have the potential to override AGOA and render its intended economic benefits meaningless.
In the face of continued financialisation of the United States' economy, the Trump administration's agenda of a decisive revitalisation of industrial manufacturing becomes impractical, especially against the background of an inadequate industrial infrastructure, the productive capacity of China, which is leading in this sphere, and the absence of coherent investment in such a direction from either the capitalist market or the state. The SACP will intensify its work in opposition to imperialism, and in the interest of sustainable national development and balanced and even global development.
THE NATIONAL SITUATION
The State of our revolution
We denounce the subversion of the National Democratic Revolution, and we will reassert the national-revolutionary, democratic content of the revolution to overcome the stagnation that it faces.
The South African National Democratic Revolution faces stagnation and challenges of major reversals. The revolutionary foundation and consensus upon which the national transformation struggle was carried out for decades has been undermined and effectively subverted by neo-liberal reformism and failure, asserting the interests of the bourgeoisie over the trajectory of the revolution. This subversion has occurred to the detriment of the popular classes, manifesting over time in stagnation and the loss of momentum for revolutionary transformation.
The content of national transformation continues to be adulterated by interests opposed to its revolutionary intent and purpose.
The SACP, to this end, recognises the urgent need to set out a path for itself and the working class more broadly to reclaim the revolution and its programme from the reformist tendency, which has carved an influential position for its forces. The contemporary calls for a reconfigured Alliance are connected to this effort by the SACP to reassert the radical posture of the national-revolutionary, democratic transformation path in favour of progressives and revolutionary class forces.
Under the subversion that our revolution faces, the national instruments of the state have been practically surrendered to imperialist interests. This includes, among others, the systematic assimilation of the National Treasury - its functioning and capabilities - into a mechanism of international monopoly capital. This has left the country with very limited policy space and potential for sovereign decision-making on economic questions, also affecting social policy.
Reversal of the VAT increase
The SACP, together with other progressive organisations, fought against the increase of VAT, and subsequently the VAT increase was halted. However, it has since become clear that the Ministry of Finance will attempt to replace the VAT increase with stringent austerity measures to recover the revenue that was expected from the reversed VAT increase.
The SACP has repeatedly made the point that austerity contradicts inclusive development and shared growth realisation. Austerity does not benefit the working class or the country more broadly. In this particular instance, too, we call on the government not to weaponise the VAT reversal to pursue austerity measures.
The SACP reaffirms the need for a national-revolutionary, democratic macro-economic framework that mobilises state resources and support for the masses of the people for transformative industrial development towards realisation of the Freedom Charter's right of all, poverty eradication and systematic elimination of inequality and undeven development.
The South African Revenue Service must be strengthened to clamp down on tax evasion, profit shifting and illicit financial flows.
The rich and wealthy must be taxed more progressively, including through a wealth tax.
Equally, the South African Reserve Bank must be transformed to support balanced and sustainable development and growth in the republic, as per its constitutional mandate - which it has failed to ensure. The Reserve Bank must no longer serve as the enforcer of neo-liberal orthodoxy through high interest rates and capital liberalisation.
The whole macro-economic framework - fiscal and monetary, as well as trade and industrial policy - must be aligned to drive domestic production development diversification and expansion to serve the people, not the profits of a few.
Access to Land and relationship of the SACP with traditional leaders
The Political Bureau reaffirmed the joint decision of the SACP and Contralesa to embark on a mobilisation campaign for a referendum to resolve the land question. This is aimed at bringing an end to the legacy of colonial land dispossession, apartheid forced removals and racial discrimination in access to land.
The SACP has taken an audacious position to play the role of a principal political actor in the agenda to transform the relations of land ownership in South Africa. In doing so, we will work closely with communities that continue to struggle for access to land. The land question is a fundamental historical grievance upon which the national democratic revolution rests. For this reason, it is a flagship programme of the SACP, through which we organise working-class communities to build conditions for self-reliance - especially in areas long hamstrung by the normalisation of dependency on externally driven service delivery.
The SACP approaches the land question not merely as a matter to be resolved by government initiative, but as one that demands community action as a decisive driver of progress.
In advancing this programme, the SACP will continue to work with traditional leaders, recognising, where applicable, their custodianship of their people's land and primacy within local their communities in the pursuit of development. The Politburo has resolved to deepen the established co-operation between the SACP and traditional leadership by reviewing the pillars and guiding principles of this relationship - always in the interests of the working class, which remains the motive force of the revolution and main constituency to drive and benefit from this co-operation.
In this light, the SACP expresses deep concern about the ongoing scourge of murders and assassinations of traditional leaders across the country. While these killings reflect the broader crisis of violent crime that has reached alarming levels, the particular concentration of such murders in the KwaZulu-Natal province suggests a unique and systemic dynamic that requires specific scrutiny. The attention that KZN must receive on this question arises out of the fact that 52 out of 60 recorded assassinations of traditional leaders occurred in KwaZulu-Natal
Accordingly, the SACP calls for an inquiry into the assassinations of traditional leaders - not as random criminal acts, but as a potentially systematic phenomenon. This inquiry must be pursued alongside a broader investigation into the crisis of political killings across the country.
Annulment of the unethical National Lottery licensing process
The allegations around the National Lottery licensing process reveal how corruption has become systemic under neo-liberal capitalism. While the SACP discourages gambling because of its harmful effects, we recognise that, unlike capitalist-owned gambling, which exists to enrich the capitalist private owners through ruthless exploitation, the National Lottery was established to support social development in our communities. Its proceeds were meant to serve the people, not private profit.
The SACP calls for immediate annulment of the National Lottery licensing process, which is fraught with unethical conduct. Politically connected individuals or anyone who has benefited or stands to benefit from political influence or factional patronage must be disqualified from the process. The process must be free from corruption or elite or any other manipulation.
Furthermore, the SACP calls on the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition to ensure thorough preparations for and to invoke Section 13A of the Lotteries Act.
Introduced through the Lotteries Amendment Act of 2013, Section 13A of the Lotteries Act empowers the Minister to authorise an organ of state to conduct the National Lottery, providing an alternative to the current market-driven model of licensing private operators. Section 13A states that if the Minister decides, on justifiable grounds, not to issue a licence to a private entity, the Minister may, after consulting the National Lotteries Commission, authorise an organ of state to operate the National Lottery for a period not exceeding eight years.
In addition, the SACP calls on Parliament to amend the legislation to allow the permanent conduct of the National Lottery by an organ of state. This will break from the corruption-prone, market-driven licensing model, and will ensure that the National Lottery remains a developmental legislative instrument for the people, not a profitmaking machine for private elites.
People's Red Caravan Programme
The SACP is initiating a nationwide community engagement campaign: The People's Red Caravan. This SACP all-inclusive programme is aimed at deepening inviolable ties with the people at the level of communities, where they confront the daily challenges imposed by capitalism - the overarching system that organises society on the basis of exploitation and oppression of the working class.
The People's Red Caravan is not an act of charity or external provision. It is a process through which communists work in and with communities to collectively address and resolve the problems that the communities experience in their lived experience. It is a practice of building alongside the people, not on their behalf.
Rooted in the principles of self-empowerment and self-reliance, The Red Caravan initiative rejects disorganising notions of absolute dependency on a "wheelbarrow-like 'delivery' state".
The SACP's work during The People's Red Caravan will focus on several critical areas, including food security, food sovereignty and food production, community safety and security, health, education, arts and culture, and recreational activities. While the Red Caravan project will be stationed in each identified community for seven days during its launching phase, the initiatives undertaken will be designed to ensure long-term sustainability.
In essence, this is a programme that demonstrates - through practical action - what building socialism at a local level can look like.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
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