SACP Expresses its Message of Heartfelt Condolences to the Families That Lost Their Loved Ones Because of Violence in Past Few Days, Calls on the Working-class to Unite

15 July 2021

The South African Communist Party expresses its message of heartfelt condolences to the families that lost their loved ones because of the actions of those responsible for planning and/or executing the violence, destruction and looting that started in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal Province and spread to some parts of Gauteng and elsewhere in the past few days. On Wednesday 14 July 2021 afternoon, the death toll was an estimated 72. The SACP wishes those who sustained injuries a speedy recovery.  

The SACP has been warning that state capture was an immediate counterrevolutionary threat against our democratic dispensation. It can only be denied at our own peril as peace-loving South Africans that for a while now an element of state capture networks has been inciting and/or propagating violence, and in the end a counterrevolutionary offensive, exploiting every opportunity. It is in this context that South Africa now sees the violence that has resulted in the massive looting, destruction, and loss of life, notwithstanding the possibility, as well, of some element of opportunistic criminality. Logistics networks and transportation for food, medicine, fuel, other essentials, and goods have been interrupted in some parts of the affected areas. This has exposed to a dangerous situation the healthcare needs of our people, including but not limited to the elderly, and our COVID-19 vaccination programme. All peace-loving South Africans must unequivocally condemn these acts of violence and criminality.

Those responsible for the killings, other violent acts, destruction, looting and associated human rights violations must be held to account. The supremacy of our constitution and based on it the rule of law must be protected and upheld. It is in this context that the measures announced by the government to ensure the safety and security of law-abiding citizens and other nationals in South Africa while taking steps to hold those responsible accountable have been widely welcomed by peace-loving South Africans. The state must strengthen its intervention in line with its constitutional mandate to bring the violence, looting, destruction, and sabotage to an end with immediate effect.

The acts of violence, destruction, looting and violation of the human rights of others apparently started in reaction to the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma after he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment by the Constitutional Court for being in contempt of court in connection with his appearance before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. The SACP has characterised as sad the fact that someone with the track record of former President Zuma, a former head of state who dedicated most of his adult life fighting for liberation and reconstruction of our country, has ended up in the unfortunate situation. This was preventable through compliance with the processes of the rule of law that former President Zuma himself articulated so well when he at last established the commission, then in his official capacity as the President of the republic.

Our constitution guarantees everyone our hard-won human rights, including the right to protest, lawfully, as opposed to violence, looting, destruction, sheer criminality, and violation of the human rights of others.      

Over and above the families affected by the killing of their loved ones, the results of the violence, destruction, looting and the associated human rights violations include displacement of other workers from work. As things stand, the affected workers lost their source of livelihood and income to support their families as their workplaces were looted, torched, and destroyed. The other similarly affected workers are those who were engaged in their own ventures, selling goods in the informal sector, and small and micro enterprises. The lawlessness is bad for the affected workers, including those who have, as a result, been stopped through temporary lay-off and short-time arrangements from reporting to work in the formal sector, also losing their income during the downtime. The violence and the destruction are bad for the entire country, and in many other ways.

Those who were struggling while working have been plunged deeper into the pre-existing crisis of social reproduction that affected them and many families struggling to support life.

The pre-existing crisis of social reproduction worsened by the violence, looting and destruction, and before then by the global COVID-19 pandemic, is a direct result of the system of the exploitation of labour by capital and associated peanut wages and economic crisis. The effects of the endemic crisis of capitalism affecting the working-class include the persistent levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality.

The SACP has consistently pushed a change in economic policy direction to roll back the crisis-high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality, the associated crisis of social reproduction, and to drive a balanced development of the country to systematically eliminate the prevailing legacy of uneven development. We cannot, however, use this historical fact to accept a justification for the violence, destruction, looting, sabotage, and killings. 

As the SACP, we have been consistent against both corporate state capture and neoliberalism, including but not limited to its privatisation, liberalisation shock therapy, and austerity agendas.

Besides ending with immediate effect the violence, destruction, sabotage and looting, the way forward lies in the working-class forging maximum unity to achieve a change in policy direction, for South Africa to achieve a rapid and significant turnaround in the vicious cycle of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. The SACP will strengthen, deepen, and widen its programme towards realising such a level of wider working-class unity, while continuing both inside and outside the Alliance, to push a change in policy direction towards a second radical phase of the national democratic revolution.

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