Logo of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) which issued a statement on the 16th anniversary of Freedom Day marking the first democratic elections in 1994 that brought the ANC to power.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) notes that April 27 will mark 16 years since the watershed 1994 democratic breakthrough. We pay tribute to the working class of this country for its ceaseless struggle against apartheid and capitalism.
We acknowledge the important role played by freedom fighters, both those who are still fighting for economic freedom and those who have degenerated into opportunists and tenderpreneurs. We appeal to them to remember the revolutionary ethos that once drove them. As much as we cherish this political freedom, we are acutely aware that the 27th April marks the day we surrendered our economic freedom in exchange for political freedom that is accompanied by a frustratingly sluggish development for the working class and the poor.
We have achieved political freedom for everybody and real freedom for the rich (black and white). We have secured a democracy that gives the rich the right to rule the roost in our political and economic terrain. We have secured a democracy that allows tenderpreneurs to accumulate while failing to deliver even the goods and services they are contracted to deliver, resulting in collapsing RDP houses, roads, bridges etc.
We have secured a democracy that allows comrades and former freedom fighters who reside in leafy suburbs, with boom gates and high electric fenced walls to shamelessly flaunt around their wealth with impunity while a sea of poverty and unemployment surrounds us. They pay lip service to working class struggles whilst they utilize pro-poor organizations to further their careers and to serve their accumulation.
We have secured a democracy that allows government Ministers such as Sphiwe Nyanda to engage in frivolous spending while a majority of South Africans struggle to make ends meet. We have secured a democracy that allows judges to outlaw revolutionary songs under the pretext that they incite violence and social intolerance.
We call on all students and workers to use the 27th of April as a day to strategize on how to expropriate the ill-gotten wealth of the black and white bourgeoisies. We call on all students and workers not to spare a moment but mobilize for a defeat of capitalism and neo-liberalism in the movement and in society. We call on the students and workers to swear that the next 27th of April will mark a rupture against the status quo.
Only when we receive free education and socialism shall we join the rest of South Africa in celebrating freedom day. For now, we will stay in our dilapidated houses and residences and watch the ululation go by. It is when we see the implementation of the NSFAS review committee recommendations that we shall begin to prepare ourselves for real celebration. The better life for all that we were promised is still a rumour to the majority. This is not a time for only celebration but a time for struggle to attain free education and improved service delivery in our townships.
Contact;
Mbulelo Mandlana
President - 076 934 9863
Or
Lazola Ndamase
Secretary General - 082 679 8718
No comments:
Post a Comment