SACP Mpumalanga Post-Augmented PEC Meeting Statement

19 March 2024

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in Mpumalanga Province held its Augmented Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) meeting on Sunday, 17 March 2024, in Mbombela Stadium. The meeting was graced by the presence of the First Deputy General Secretary Comrade Madala Masuku and Central Committee Member Comrade Rudolf Phala.

The meeting was held at a time when our country is heading towards highly contested elections since our 1994 democratic breakthrough.

In the same breath, we congratulate the African National Congress for holding a successful January 8 rally in Mbombela and Manifesto Launch in KwaZulu-Natal Province. For this reason, the neoliberal offensive against the progressive forces has also intensified their work and we have seen this with the mushrooming of small parties that are highly funded. We have to ask: where are they getting this money and for what purpose?

The Moonshot Pact has defined itself with regime change agenda in this country and we have a responsibility to defend our democratic gains against all tendencies trying to give away our national sovereignty. It was clear that enemies of the national democratic revolution will never rest until their myopic goal is achieved. The DA, as the leader of the counter-revolutionary pact, has exposed their agenda by approaching the US Secretary of State to intervene in our elections as observers.

The SACP will continue with building the political consciousness of the people of South Africa so that they can be able to fight and defend their country against proponents of regime change. The new ‘MK Party’ can also be viewed as such especially after their attack on the Independent Electoral Commission and threatening the country with violence. It is a party built on hatred, with the intention of disrupting progress made by the ANC-led government in the past three decades. They have no shame in denouncing the very same thing they were accused of doing in the recent past like corruption.

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

The national democratic revolution (NDR) remains the shortest road to socialism and for it to succeed, the party must take responsibility and play its vanguard role. It must unite all progressive forces and build a powerful socialist movement of the workers and poor that will also help in dealing with the current wave of ideological confusion. Ultimately, it must contribute in uniting the ANC to be able to deal with its own internal challenges.

It will be difficult for the NDR to be realised if there is no reconfiguration of the Alliance. This reconfiguration must happen at all levels to enhance policy direction of the country and to ensure that we build a proper developmental state that does not rely only on loans for survival, but it should be a state that will put industrialisation based on macroeconomics policy at the centre stage.

ECONOMY

Mpumalanga is hosting 11 of the country’s 14 coal-fired power stations, many of which are ageing and unfairly targeted for decommissioning. This has placed the province on the spotlight with regards to the imperatives of climate change and Just Energy Transmission, which is not acceptable. This is clearly an agenda of imperialists against the working class and it will be defeated.

Building new and reviving old industries together with building more TVET colleges would provide much needed economic resources for this country. The SACP calls for the reopening of Elijah Mongo, Mgwenya, Hoxane colleges and many others for the purpose of helping with skills development in the country.

COMMUNITY

Every member of the SACP is a community activist: this is a dictum that makes the Party to be relevant and hegemonic in society. It is for this reason that the SACP must continue to build VD-based branches across the province and Party structures must be at the centre of all community struggles. These branches must be imbued with proper ideological training in Marxism-Leninism.

During these elections, the Party in the province will continue to help the community to understand why it is important for them to continue to vote for the ANC. The launch of Chris Hani Red Brigades whose task is to lead party work on the ground and provide the much-needed assistance to the ANC election work is ongoing.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

The Party in Mpumalanga notes that apartheid Israel is not prepared to adhere to the judgment delivered by the International Court of Justice which seeks to stop the genocide of the people of Palestine. We call upon the South African government to intensify its solidarity work in support of the people of Palestine. We also call for an unconditional end of the war in Ukraine where NATO continues to provoke Russia and behave like a stepfather to Ukraine.

In the same vein, we congratulate the people of Russia for re-electing Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia. Many lessons can be drawn from this experience, particularly by African countries, that no international pressure must make a country surrender its national sovereignty to please the West.

Here at home, the South African government and Mpumalanga Provincial Government need to review our relations with the government of Swaziland. We have been calling for a free democratic Swaziland and this call cannot reverberate to Mswati if the South African government continues with its ties with the tinkhundla system.

ISSUED BY SACP MPUMALANGA

Contact:

Lucky Mbuyane

SACP Provincial Secretary

082 351 5804

Or

Lesetja Dikgale

SACP Provincial Spokesperson

076 869 4360

Issued by the South African Communist Party,

Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.

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