Thursday, September 19, 2019

SACP Western Cape Statement
17 September 2019

Post SACP Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee meeting statement

The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Western Cape Province met from 14 to 15 September 2019, at Nehawu Office, Sunbel in Bellville. Our PEC was augmented to include District Office Bearers and the Young Communist League of South Africa. SACP Central Committee members, Comrade Khaya Magaxa and Comrade Lechesa Tsenoli led presentations on the upcoming 4th Special National Congress (SNC) discussion documents.

The main purpose of the Augmented PEC was to introduce and familiarise provincial and districts leaders with the main content of the 4th Special National Congress discussion documents in preparation for wider discussions at branch, sub-district and district levels.

Forward to our SACP’s 4th Special National Congress

The recent SACP Augmented Central Committee adopted our political road-map to the 4th Special National Congress in relation to the state and direction of our shared National Democratic Revolution (NDR). The PEC placed an emphasis on preparations towards the 2021 local government elections as well as building and consolidation of the Left Popular Front and Patriotic Front as a basis to consolidate the NDR as well as build a platform to advance towards socialism.

Further, the Party in the province is optimistic that the 4th Special National Congress will play a crucial role in repositioning the Party as a fighting, agile, dynamic and independent vanguard Party of the working class.

Renew the ANC headed Alliance

The augmented PEC expressed its concern about the persisting state of paralysis in the ANC headed Alliance and more specifically capacity to engage in effective opposition politics within the legislative arm of the state in the Western Cape.

The PEC calls for the reconstitution of the political committee in the legislature in consultation with all Alliance components as a basis to form a strong leadership team that will truly represent the movement, not narrow factional groupings. 

Furthermore, the Augmented PEC calls on the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) through the Secretary General’s office to remove the representatives who entered the National Council of Provinces through the back door.

The PEC reaffirmed its position that part of what will constitute a real renewal and rebuilding of the ANC will be the removal of all those who squandered the money meant for elections and those who cooperated with the Guptas. All these steps will demonstrate a movement that wants to unite the Alliance and ready to self correct towards the 2021 local government elections.

The social crisis of capitalist reproduction is responsible for the violence in our society

The Western Cape is characterised by all the ills of the phenomenon of social reproduction from gender-based violence, escalating levels of crime, unemployment, inequality and poverty. The ever persisting crisis of social reproduction as a consequence of the capitalist mode of production remains the primary perpetrator of impoverishment, exclusion and general exploitation. The Democratic Alliance (DA) government in practice reinforces the crisis of social reproduction through its anti-poor and pro-business attitude.

Moreover, the neoliberal policies of the DA and the continuing apartheid spatial planning and segregation of the people of the Western Cape remains the backward reality that confronts us today. The persisting high rate of crime in the working-class communities affirms our view that neoliberal policies of the DA are catastrophic to the people of the Western Cape.

We note the extension of the period of deployment of the army to March 2020 as announced by the Presidency. The presence of the soldiers remains that of a temporary intervention which will never translate to the effective mechanism to reclaim our communities from criminals.  The failures of the provincial government to accept its role in fighting crime other than the blame game directed to the national sphere of government is the source of the inability to assert the people at the centre of crime-fighting. This is coupled with the obsession of making Western Cape a homeland through federalising the province by claiming the provincial police.

As long as the Western Cape government is unable to understand that the key to crime-fighting is the development of communities and transformation of squatter camps to proper houses with proper roads, streets and lights that enable easy and swift access of police to crime scenes, the crime problem in the Western Cape will not be solved.

The Party has noted the collapse of infrastructure in working-class communities in the Western Cape.  Almost of all the Western Cape communities’ roads are dilapidated and raw sewage spills all over into communities.

The Party calls upon the various Western Cape communities to first accept that they are on their own, and that those who are supposed to deliver public services do so only to affluent areas. The people have a government whose interest is to exploit. It is for this reason that the Party calls for the decrease of the exorbitant water tariffs that were increased during the imaginary DAY Zero.  Further, the Party calls upon the Western Cape government to delink the water rates from the electricity rates as it is a norm to the poor areas.

We call upon the Department of Housing to relocate all the people who are in the Wetlands and provide adequate social housing. The SACP will continue with marches demanding access to basic services against any government sphere. Against this background, Party structures across the province will roll-out mass work directed at sub-councils and local municipalities, demanding access to basic services.

In addition, the SACP calls upon the MEC for Health to extend the working hours of the health centres in our communities and increase the availability of ambulances in the rural part of the Western Cape.

Issued by SACP Western Cape

Contact

Benson Ngqentsu – Provincial Secretary       

Mobile- 082 796 6400

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

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