GT Voice: South Korea’s Discontent at US’ EV Policy Shows Cracks in ‘Chip 4’

By Global Times

Aug 29, 2022 09:54 PM

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

A South Korean delegation comprising officials from various government departments will leave for the US to pay a three-day visit, during which South Korea aims to express concerns over the US' so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a recently signed law that reportedly excludes electric vehicles (EVs) assembled outside North America from tax incentives, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday.

South Korean officials' scheduled visit to Washington came amid mounting concerns expressed by South Korean automakers, most of which make their flagship EVs at South Korean plants and ship them overseas. Analysts believe the US' Inflation Reduction Act will reduce the competitiveness of South Korean-made EVs in the US market. 

Yonhap said, in another report on August 22, that South Korea would review whether to file a complaint at the WTO, citing possibilities that the US law could violate WTO rules and a bilateral free trade deal.

Observers now focus their eyes on Seoul and have one question in mind: Will the US-South Korea EV disputes affect Seoul's decision on the US-led "chip alliance"? According to media reports, the US government has asked Seoul to inform it by August 31 whether it would join the so-called "Chip 4" semiconductor alliance.

In March, the US proposed the idea of "Chip 4" and sent invitations to Japan, South Korea and China's Taiwan region. While the semiconductor alliance is ostensibly aimed at strengthening equal and mutually beneficial cooperation throughout the chip-making production chain, one thing is obvious: Washington intends to build a US-oriented and US-led global semiconductor industrial chain that excludes China and force its allies to serve American interests.

US President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, also known as the CHIPS Act, into law in August. The bill provides $52.7 billion for American semiconductor research, development, manufacturing and workforce development, but includes also restrictive items. For instance, media reports said the bill requires recipients not to build certain facilities in China and other "countries of concern." 

With the bill, the Biden administration has taken its first step in bringing semiconductor research, development and manufacturing back to the US, and we believe Washington will introduce more measures in the future to promote the localized production and try to build a US-oriented semiconductor industrial chain. South Korean semiconductor companies may soon face the same situation as the country's automakers, which have been excluded from US tax incentives. 

If South Korea succumbs to US pressure and join the "Chip 4," its domestic semiconductor sector may eventually become an appendage to US hegemony. It has been increasingly clear that the US is trying to build a global semiconductor industrial chain it dominates. Washington won't change its mind no matter whether Seoul joins the "Chip 4" or not. What's worse, South Korea doesn't have many bargaining chips in fighting for equal rights among members if the country joins the "Chip 4." The case of EV tax incentives has once again proved that South Korea is at a disadvantage in supply chain competition with the US.

South Korea has become an important global player in the semiconductor industry but owing to a lack of a complete supply chain, its semiconductor sector is highly dependent upon overseas markets. China remains the biggest market for South Korean semiconductor companies. Without the Chinese market, it will be impossible for South Korean semiconductor companies to develop and move up the supply chain. Without the Chinese market, South Korea will have limited bargaining power when negotiating with the US.

The US tries to exclude China from the global semiconductor industrial chain but its efforts will never succeed. China doesn't pursue a path of building exclusive industrial chain and instead keep an open mind toward mutually beneficial cooperation with all partners in the global semiconductor industrial chain.

China and South Korea have room for cooperation in many fields, in addition to the semiconductor industry. The two countries have agreed on Saturday to boost cooperation and communications on supply chains by setting up a new high-level consultative body, Yonhap reported.

Concerns from the South Korean delegation about the US, as well as South Korea's supply chains cooperation with China, taken together, is an interesting phenomenon, reflecting the different attitudes of China and the US over supply chain issues. Joining a US-oriented and US-led supply chain runs counter to South Korea's strategic interests.

Responsible Neighbor: China Maintains Water Release to Downstream Mekong Countries Despite Extreme Heat, Drought

By Hu Yuwei in Yunnan

Aug 29, 2022 07:24 PM

Despite extreme heat, drought, and water shortages that saw an obvious reduction in rainfall in Lancang River, China has nevertheless maintained water supply to the lower reaches of the Mekong River, the Global Times recently learned from the operator of key hydropower stations on China's Lancang River, on the upper reaches of the Mekong River which connects six countries.

Experts warn that extreme weather and droughts will possibly be the biggest challenge to Lancang-Mekong water resources currently, while some foreign countries outside the region such as the US take the chance to sow seeds of discord or hype up conflicts among the six riparian countries along the Lancang-Mekong River.

The envoys and representatives of the Mekong countries have called for enhanced cooperation and information sharing to bring the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism to an elevated level despite Western provocation of ties.

Challenges in the basin

Climate change has been an increasing threat in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin with concerns growing over more frequent extreme weather negatively impacting the livelihoods of the millions who rely on the river's natural resources. Rising temperatures and changes in intensity and frequency of rainfall, river flow, floods and droughts are dangerous for homes, infrastructures, crops, and fisheries. 

"From January to August, the Lancang River Basin suffered from extreme drought as the water flow decreased significantly. The natural water flow of the Lancang River in China decreased by more than 20 percent. The decrease of water flow peaked in July and August, as more than 50 percent of the precious resource almost disappeared," the Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Inc which operates the Jinghong Hydropower Station that is close to the China-Laos border told the Global Times on Thursday.

A recent scientific study revealed that the Lancang-Mekong River basin tends to experience a wetter rainy season and a drier intermittent season with rising temperatures coinciding with climate change, the study's researcher Liu Hui, from the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, told the Global Times, calling for more effective strategies to enhance food and drinking water security in the basin.

Downstream countries have also experienced more extreme weather events this year. In Vietnam, for example, since the beginning of this year, natural weather phenomena have become increasingly unpredictable, with unseasonal rains and flooding accompanied by thunderstorms, strong winds, and storms, local media reported.

China has similarly suffered such crises in recent days as the Yangtze River Basin, for instance, is in grapples with a severe drought with sizzling temperatures for more than two months and the lowest rainfall recorded in six decades. Drought conditions have also persisted across much of Southwest China's Sichuan Province for more than two months. 

Common interests always priority

Even in the face of significantly reduced natural precipitation, the cascade power stations along the Lancang River still gives full play to the regulation of water flow downstream to guarantee that basic water needs are met.

According to data provided to the Global Times by the Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Inc., the actual outbound flow of the Jinghong reservoir from January to August increased by 410 cubic meters per second, an increase of more than 30 percent of the natural flow, showing how the hydropower station's giving full play to its regulating role and effectively guaranteeing downstream water demands for shipping, ecology, and water supply.

According to data published on the Mekong River Commission website, the water levels at the sections of Vientiane and Stung Treng on the mainstream of the Mekong River have remained at a normal level and have not been affected by drought, which experts said is a benefit of generous water releases from China.

Notably, the Jinghong reservoir, as an important power source in China, has given up participating in hydropower supply and emergency tasks nationwide in peak time, despite the current intense power shortage in Southwest China, but gives priority to ensuring that its outbound flow strictly meeting the basic needs of Mekong River shipping and other activities in the upcoming dry season starting from November, the Global Times learnt from the company.

This means that the Jinghong Hydropower Station does not fully exert its function for domestic electricity demand but tries its best to help the downstream to cope with possible droughts and avoid further transference of upstream challenges to the downstream, Hao Zhao, secretary general of the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center, told the Global Times.

Since 2016, the cascade power stations on the Lancang River have played a crucial role in flood control and drought relief along the Lancang-Mekong River.

The water flow of the river reach below the Jinghong Hydropower Station now is generally enough for navigation even in the dry season, which was not possible before the Lancang cascade hydropower stations were built.

During the dry season between November 2021 and May 2022, the inflow to the Jinghong Hydropower Station was only 831 cubic meters per second, while the station released as much as 1,431 cubic meters per second, about 72 percent higher than the natural flow, which fully demonstrates the dam's efficacy. 

China's efforts to enable downstream countries to relieve extreme weather and electricity strains are also reflected in China's support of dam maintenance downstream. 

Under the framework of the LMC mechanism, Chinese technical experts trained expertise teams in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam on dam inspection and safety checks.

China has also helped Laos build a national water resources information and data center to provide timely and reliable water data to help in flood control and drought relief, which has been highly recognized by the Laotian leader.

During a recent four-day trip to hydropower stations along the Lancang River in Yunnan Province, diplomats and representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam learnt about the touching stories that are a common theme for both upstream and downstream countries in their joint efforts to prevent floods and droughts, and applauded Chinese efforts in building a community with a shared future of Lancang-Mekong countries in a joint agreement reached at the Seventh LMC Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Bagan, Myanmar, on July 4, 2022.

Zin Mar Htwe, Charge d'Affaires of the Myanmar Embassy in China, thanked China for continuously sharing hydrological information with the Mekong countries and offering support for projects funded by the LMC Special Fund.

Transparency and information sharing highlighted

The West's insinuation that "China's deep reluctance to share information about the [upstream] dams is causing tensions in downstream region" has never stopped. 

But the fact is China is ramping up efforts to enhance transparent data sharing.

To contribute to the collaborative efforts, China has made good on its promise to share year-round hydrological data of the Lancang River with the launching of an online information sharing platform on November 30, 2020. 

The platform aims to provide reliable data and early warning services related to floods and droughts. The data was mainly collected by the Yunjinghong Hydrological Station on the Lancang River and the Man'an Hydrological Station on its tributary. The Global Times reporter visited the Yunjinghong Hydrological Station on Thursday, and found out that the station has been using state-of-the-art technology such as side minesweepers to detect water levels and flows since 2019, combined with manual checks to ensure the accuracy of data collected.

Taking the Yunjinghong Hydrological Station as an example, China shares real-time data with downstream countries twice a day at 8 am and 8 pm. The information is critical for downstream countries, the head of the station told the Global Times.

The collected data is simultaneously shared to downstream state water resources authorities and also posted on the aforementioned information sharing platform. "The daily update has never been interrupted, and never been misreported. Downstream countries also appreciate China's efficiency and sincerity in information sharing," Hao noted.

The US has, for many years, blamed China for the downstream drought by drawing unreliable and inaccurate conclusions from remote sensing satellite data and analytical models. Therefore, it is more important to introduce more digital technology and more mature models under the LMC mechanism to provide and share reliable data to refute such false accusations, Guo Yanjun, Director of the Institute of Asian Studies at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told the Global Times. 

In a White House-released action plan on global water security published in June, the US vowed to use data-driven approaches in decision-making related to international waters. The scientific, technical agencies and the US Intelligence Community would be used during all stages of policymaking, diplomacy, and programming, said the plan. 

Extreme weather and drought may be the biggest challenge to the Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation. While the US and some countries outside the region may grab the chance to create conflicts and stir up disputes among the Lancang-Mekong countries. China and other LMC countries should try their best to release details and results of close cooperation, and welcome international participation to clarify rumors, Zhai Kun, an expert on the Mekong region with the School of International Studies at the Peking University, told the Global Times.

"This year has been particularly difficult for sustainable development and governance in the Lancang-Mekong region as it faces multiple challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, energy and food crisis brought by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the recent drought. These represent potential sources of tension, particularly as the climate changes and water availability becomes less predictable, but also presents opportunities for novel forms of cooperation," said Zhai.

Indian Mission to Sri Lanka's Referral to Taiwan Question Reveals Some Politicians' Speculative Illusion: Analysts

China will not compromise on other issues while dealing with Taiwan Straits tensions

By GT staff reporters

Aug 29, 2022 09:10 PM

China India Photo: CFP

It is wrong and a speculative illusion for a group of politicians in India to think that it can benefit from interfering in the Taiwan question or push China to make compromises on border issues while China is dealing with the tense situation in the Taiwan Straits, Chinese analysts warned Monday, after a tweet by the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka was interpreted by Indian media as a change from the Indian government's previous views over China's military drills in response to the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island of Taiwan.

In response to what it called "queries concerning Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong's article that drew a 'connection between militarization of the Taiwan Straits and the visit by China's Yuan Wang 5 ship to Hambantota'," the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka on Saturday posted a series of tweets criticizing the Chinese ambassador's referral to "aggression" faced by Sri Lanka from its "northern neighbor" as a "violation of basic diplomatic etiquette" and this "may be a personal trait or reflecting a larger national attitude."

On August 26, Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong published a signed article in the Sri Lankan Guardian saying that it is good to see the Sri Lanka government finally allowing the Chinese scientific research vessel "Yuan Wang 5" to dock at Hambantota Port. When reviewing the history of Sri Lanka, Ambassador Qi noted the country had overcome "aggression from its northern neighbor 17 times, colonization by the West for 450 years, and an anti-terrorism war for nearly three decades."

Despite its denials, India's continuous pressure on the Sri Lankan government over the docking of "Yuan Wang 5" is clear for the world to see, and if India attempts to use this issue to interfere in the Taiwan question, it would damage bilateral relations, said observers.

"People who are familiar with China's diplomatic language understand that the Chinese ambassador did not mention India by name to save its face and to preserve relations between China and India, while the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka's tweets revealed that India is the one that prevented Yuan Wang 5 from docking in Sri Lanka," Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.

By mentioning the Taiwan question, some politicians in India want to dock with the US' anti-China strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. Some may also harbor the illusion that while China is busy dealing with threats in the southeast and relations with the US, it may make compromises on negotiations in its border issues, Qian said, noting that India should know that China will not make any compromise on matters related to its sovereignty and core interests. 

Earlier this month, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the ministry was concerned over the developments of tensions across the Taiwan Straits and called for "the exercise of restraint, avoidance of unilateral actions to change the status quo and de-escalation of tensions" in the region, reported PTI. Reuters reported that when asked about India's position on the one-China principle, Bagchi said "India's relevant policies are well known and consistent."  

Qian said that the Indian government's stance on the Taiwan question has not changed, otherwise, it would be on the opposite side of the majority of countries in the world, as more than 170 countries and international organizations as well as many political parties globally have reiterated their support for one-China principle after Pelosi's highly provocative visit to the island of Taiwan.

Some analysts also pointed out that some Indian politicians may take Pelosi's visit as an opportunity to isolate China by hyping the "China threat", especially in South Asia, and to gain extra advantages in its relations with China especially on border issues. 

Aside from hyping "security concerns" over China's Yuan Wang 5 visit to Sri Lanka, analysts noted that India is also disturbing China's exchanges with countries in South Asia. For example, before Nepal Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka's visit to China in the middle of August, European Union ambassadors in Kathmandu requested a meeting with the Foreign Minister to express their displeasure. And on August 10, Indian and Western media hyped Bangladesh's finance minister Mustafa Kamal's "warning" about taking more loans through China's Belt and Road Initiative. 

India, which has the support of the Europeans, has become active in the Taiwan question, and understands the environment in which it can take advantage of the US' anti-China policy. The morale of the Indians has increased as the interests of Americans, Europeans, and Indians are immediately aligned, Prem Sagar, the president of Kathmandu-based Nepal-China Mutual Co-operation Society, told the Global Times.

India has treated South Asia as its sphere of influence and does not want to see regional countries develop good relations with China. This is why India is hyping China's "debt trap" and "China threat", and it is India that is interfering with these countries' domestic affairs, Long Xingchun, a senior research fellow with the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and president of the Chengdu Institute of World Affairs, told the Global Times. 

PLA Conducts Realistic Combat Exercise as US Senator Met with Tsai in Taiwan Island

Provocations from self-serving politicians to speed China’s effort in solving question: expert

By Wang Qi

Aug 26, 2022 11:33 PM

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) organized a multi-service and arms joint combat-readiness patrol and realistic combat exercise in the seas and airspace around the island of Taiwan, the Eastern Theater Command of the PLA announced on Friday afternoon, hours after US Senator Marsha Blackburn met with Taiwan's regional leader Tsai Ing-wen, discussing issues like regional security and semiconductor supply chains in a three-day visit. 

The Eastern Theater Command points out that the actual combat exercise is a regular military operation organized in accordance with the changing situation in the Taiwan Straits. The PLA will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

According to information released by the Taiwan region's defense authority, eight PLA Navy vessels and 35 PLA aircraft were detected around the island on Friday, with 18 of the detected aircraft (SU-30, J-11, J-16 and J-10) having flown on the east part of the "median line" of the Taiwan Straits and the island's self-proclaimed southwest ADIZ.

Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, arrived in Taipei on Thursday night on board a US military aircraft, and she falsely and provocatively remarked that Taiwan has its own territory and said she "will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island," US media reported. 

During her meeting with Tsai, she expressed US support for the island and hoped that more firms in the semiconductor industry from the island will invest in the US. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday strongly denounced Blackburn's visit and urged relevant politicians to immediately stop any form of official exchanges with Taiwan and to immediately stop sending any wrong signals to secessionists, as it is a serious violation of the one-China principle and goes against the US commitment of maintaining only non-official ties with the Taiwan region.

"We will not waver in opposing 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities and external interference," read a statement published by the ministry. "China will continue to take strong measures to resolutely defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Blackburn's visit was the fourth visit made by US politicians in August, following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a delegation led by Senator Ed Markey, and a group led by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. 

Given that the US has just kicked off the implementation of the Chips and Science Act, the US wants to step up its efforts to attract investment in the hope of absorbing the Taiwan region's production capacity. There is competition among states in the US, said Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

It also cannot be ruled out that there's US arm dealers' interest behind the visit of Blackburn, who is also a member of the Senate's Committee on Armed Service, Lü told the Global Times, noting that perhaps Blackburn may urge Taiwan authorities to be more generous with their arms purchases from the US. 

Coincidentally, hours before Blackburn's plane landed in Taipei on Thursday night, the exclusive body on the island passed its 2023 defense budget of about $19.5 billion, a 12.9 percent increase from the 2022 edition. The budget involving military purchases from the US rose 13.9 percent.

Citing sources, Reuters reported on Friday that there will be attempts to push stuff into the Taiwan region, and "not just weapons." The sources also claimed that a spike in tensions won't change the US' current arms sale policy to the island.

Yuan Zheng, deputy director and senior fellow of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday that the US Congress is in its summer recess, a period that some lawmakers may use to make some high-sounding excuses for a foreign visit about personal gains. 

With midterm elections looming, visiting the Taiwan region could be a plus for some anti-China American lawmakers, who may also be privately funded by Taiwan authorities, in terms of free travel and election sponsorships, Yuan said. 

In order to gain political and economic benefits, many US politicians are even willing to undermine their national security, regardless of China's reaction, Lü said. Interestingly, Pelosi's Taiwan trip was actually creating an opening for Republicans to play the Taiwan card. It's known that Blackburn is a "staunch backer" of former US president Donald Trump.

Although the level of a senator with an extreme anti-China ideology, such as Blackburn, is not as high as Pelosi's, China is still taking it seriously, Lü said, and the Americans should not be under any illusion that China will become inured to it because of the successive visits of US politicians. 

In fact, every US politician's visit to Taiwan will shorten the time for the final answer to the Taiwan question to emerge and make China's efforts to strengthen its own capabilities more visible, Lü said.

Analysts said that the US has always stressed that the cross-Straits status quo should not be changed unilaterally by any party, but in fact it was the US and the Taiwan authorities who jointly changed the status quo. 

The PLA is in the process of adapting to the new status quo, and it may maintain and appropriately intensify regular exercises and training in the future, Lü said. "The PLA and the whole country are looking forward to the day of reunification and are fully prepared for it."

According to the maritime safety administration bureau of Fujian Province on Wednesday, live-fire drills will be conducted on Friday and Saturday in a coastal region close to the Chinese mainland's side of the Taiwan Straits.  

Russia Blocks Nuclear Treaty Agreement Over Ukraine Reference

August 28, 2022   

Russia has blocked the adoption of a joint declaration by a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is reviewed by its 191 signatories every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

Russia objected to a draft text citing “grave concern” over military activities around Ukraine’s nuclear plants, in particular Zaporizhzhia.

Participants in the last review in 2015 also failed to reach an agreement.

The 2022 meeting, which had been due in 2020, was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The failure to agree a joint declaration followed a four-week conference in New York.

The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, said she was “deeply disappointed” at the lack of agreement.

“Russia obstructed progress by refusing to compromise on proposed text accepted by all other states,” she said.

The US representative, Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, said the US “deeply regrets this outcome, and even more so on Russia’s actions that led us here today”.

Russia was opposed to a section of the text expressing “grave concern” over military activities around Ukrainian power plants – including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which Russia seized early on in the war in Ukraine.

The draft section also remarked on “the loss of control by the competent Ukrainian authorities over such locations as a result of those military activities, and their profound negative impact on safety”.

Russia’s representative, Igor Vishnevetsky, said the draft final text lacked “balance”.

“Our delegation has one key objection on some paragraphs which are blatantly political in nature,” he said – adding that other countries also disagreed with the text.

The final document needed approval of all countries at the conference. A number of countries, including the Netherlands and China, expressed disappointment that no consensus had been reached.

The Dutch said they were “content with the useful discussions”, but “very disappointed that we have not reached consensus”.

Chinn’s ambassador, meanwhile, said despite the lack of agreement, the process was “an important practice of common security and genuine multilateralism”.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty, backed by 190 countries in 1970, commits countries which signed up – including the US, Russia, France the UK and China – to reducing their stockpiles and bars others from acquiring nuclear weapons.

THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 28 AUGUST 2022

France’s Macron Woos Algeria, but Can’t Erase Colonial Scars

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, gestures during a press conference with Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022 in Algiers. Emmanuel Macron arrived in Algeria for a three-day visit aimed at addressing two major challenges: boosting future economic relations and healing colonial-era wounds. The visit comes less than a year after a monthlong diplomatic crisis between the two countries stirred up tensions 60 years after the North African country won its independence from France. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

ORAN, Algeria (AP) — The leaders of France and Algeria took an important step Saturday toward mending relations scarred by disputes over migration and the legacy of colonial crimes, agreeing to cooperate on energy, security and reassessing their joint history.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up a three-day visit to Algeria with a raft of accords that France hopes will smooth ties with Africa’s largest country, a major gas and oil supplier to Europe and an influential regional military player.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune hailed “an excellent and very successful” visit and credited Macron’s personal efforts toward rapprochement. The two were chummy at their final meeting Saturday, smiling, embracing and holding hands. Tebboune specifically praised an unprecedented joint security meeting, without elaborating.

But the accords released by Macron’s office were thin on specifics and stop far short of an official apology for France’s colonial-era wrongdoing, which Algerians have long clamored for.

The countries agreed to cooperate on gas and hydrogen development and medical research, and create a joint commission to examine archives from the 130 years when Algeria was the crown jewel in France’s empire.

The study will include the fallout from French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara, unsettled questions about the remains of slain resistance fighters and other dark chapters of Algeria’s eight-year war for independence.

“I want truth and recognition,” instead of “repentance,” Macron said.

Mohand Arezki Ferrad, a former lawmaker who teaches at the Institute of History of Algiers, called the new commission “a clever maneuver to clear himself of the obligation to ask forgiveness from Algeria for what he himself called crimes against humanity.”

As France’s first leader born after the colonial era, Macron has sought to confront his country’s past wrongdoing while pivoting to a new era of relations with once-colonized lands.

“We had moving moments these last few days that allowed us to build the foundation of what is to come,” Macron said in wrapping up his trip.

He met religious leaders, recorded a TikTok video in an iconic Algerian record shop and watched a performance of break-dancers who hope to compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. He also faced a few angry chanters who reminded him they haven’t forgotten about the “martyrs” of the Algerian war for independence.

“A lot remains to be done,” he later acknowledged.

The true number of Algerians who died in the war and its aftermath is unknown, as many were never identified. Last year, Macron acknowledged that French forces used torture in Algeria, and he commemorated victims of a deadly police crackdown on pro-independence protesters in Paris in 1961, which French authorities sought to cover up for decades.

But Macron’s reconciliation efforts have faced criticism at home, amid growing public support for far-right nationalists who champion the grievances of French descendants of colonial rule.

“There is no political will among the French authorities, whether on the right or on the left, to look the colonial past in the face,” said Abdelmalek Alouane, professor at Science Po university in Algiers.

While he welcomed the overall message of Macron’s trip, Alouane asked, “Is a commission of experts really necessary for the French authorities to return to us skulls of resistance fighters? ... Why has the commission on the compensation of Algerian victims of French nuclear tests in southern Algeria between 1960 and 1967 never been able to shed light on this human and ecological disaster?”

“Algerians do not want to haggle over the memory of their martyrs,” he said.

Earlier Saturday, the French leader visited Disco Maghreb, an iconic record store In the western Algerian city of Oran and a recording label for artists who perform traditional Rai music. Franco-Algerian artist DJ Snake has helped bring attention to Disco Maghreb and Rai rhythms, and Macron sent the DJ a TikTok video message from the shop.

It was seen as part of Macron’s efforts to rely on young people to pitch Franco-Algerian relations forward instead of dwelling on the past.

Macron promised France would become more flexible in issuing visas to Algerians after a major diplomatic crisis over the issue last year. France sharply curtailed visas for people from North Africa because governments there were refusing to take back migrants refused asylum in France.

Algeria then recalled its ambassador to France over comments by Macron about Algeria’s pre-colonial history and post-colonial system of government, and refused permission for France to fly military planes in its air space.

Macron’s trip went a long way toward reconciliation, and reviving economic cooperation. Russia’s war in Ukraine has notably reinforced the North African nation’s role as a key energy supplier as European countries seek alternatives to Russian energy.

Macron’s office said he would also raise human rights concerns. Algeria has seen a creeping crackdown on dissent since pro-democracy protests in 2019.

___

Oleg Cetinic in Oran and Algiers contributed to this report.

SACP Fifteenth National Congress Central Committee First Plenary Statement

Ekurhuleni, Sunday, 28 August 2022

The newly elected SACP Central Committee held its first plenary from Friday to Sunday, 26–28 August 2022, in Ekurhuleni, after the successful 15th Party National Congress held in mid-July 2022. 

The First Plenary of the SACP 15th National Congress Central Committee occurred amid a cost-of-living crisis, characterised by high food, fuel, transport and electricity prices, coupled with persisting high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality. These reflect the capitalist system, which prioritises profits over the people and the environment.   

Structural economic transformation

The Central Committee commends the trade union federations COSATU and SAFTU, as well as their affiliates, for the joint National Day of Action held on Wednesday, 24 August 2022. Having been calling for engagements towards a joint trade union programme of action around the common interests and demands of the workers, the SACP fully supported the action. The key demands included a call for the government to address the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis and the persisting high levels of inequality, unemployment and poverty. 

The SACP will continue its efforts to achieve greater trade union unity and build a popular left front and a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor. 

To overcome the multiple crises affecting the working-class, the SACP is calling for a review of monetary, fiscal and international trade policies to drive structural transformation. The revised macroeconomic policy framework must support a comprehensive industrial policy to achieve industrialisation and create employment on a massive scale. Therefore, we are calling on the government to develop such a high impact industrial policy. 

Immediate measures to cushion the poor against the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, unemployment and poverty must include maintaining the Social Relief of Distress Grant and moving towards a universal basic income grant, as part of building a comprehensive social security system. 

The government should expand public employment programmes on a massive scale. 

To resolve the energy crisis, we are calling for the installation of solar power kits for working-class households, linked with localising manufacturing for the components to create employment. 

The SACP calls for increased public investment in new electric energy generation capacity. This should include investment in innovation, research and development in clean coal technology, and in renewable and cleaner energy sources. To foster a just transition, measures must be taken to protect workers and create additional employment in the energy sector.  

Increased budgetary allocation for maintenance at Eskom is essential to address the current load shedding problem. The forthcoming medium-term expenditure framework must offer a tangible solution and provide adequate resources to address the Eskom debt.  

The South African Reserve Bank’s high interest rate regime is itself inflationary. It compounds the cost-of-living crisis and impedes the prospects for inclusive growth and development. Therefore, SACP will intensify its campaign for a change towards a developmental monetary policy and expand the mandate of the Reserve Bank to include sustainable employment creation. 

The Central Committee reiterates its call for the state to take a majority stake in the African Bank as a part of the wider financial sector transformation imperative to establish a developmental state banking sector. 

The Central Committee called for acceleration of land redistribution, including through testing the current constitutional provisions and finalising new legislative measures to effect land expropriation without compensation. Expanding agricultural production, developing an artisanal and small-scale mining sector, and transforming spatial development through integrated human settlement in both rural and urban areas, should be among the key priorities for the programme.  

The Central Committee called for greater security of tenure for the approximately three million farm dwellers, who also need essential services. The government must pay urgent attention to these imperatives.  

The government must turn around state-owned enterprises and public entities to thrive and fulfil their developmental and public mandate. The SACP remains opposed to privatisation and will intensify its campaign for a diversified and predominant publicly owned economy as part and parcel of driving structural economic transformation. 

Develop artisanal and small-scale mining sector, clamp down on criminality in discontinued mining areas

Mining capitalists who have left mining sites without land restoration and rehabilitation must be held accountable. Seeking accountability on land restoration and rehabilitation must include the pursuit of reparation, going back to the exploitation of our mineral resources under colonial and apartheid oppression. 

The SACP therefore calls for stringent enforcement of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. As a matter of urgency, the Act must be strengthened to put the people and the environment before profits. 

The government should foster legitimate mining in sites that are still viable to mine, prioritising artisanal and small-scale mining co-operatives. The viability to mine these sites must therefore not only be judged on profitability, but the pressing need to reduce unemployment radically, build sustainable livelihoods, eradicate poverty and empower the masses. The government must therefore create an enabling environment and adequately support worker- and community-controlled co-operatives to support the artisanal and small-scale mining sector development.   

In discontinued mining sites that are no longer viable to mine, the government must strengthen its efforts to speed up land development. This requires developmental rezoning, repurposing the use of the land, where necessary removing gravel and dumps. The government must attach great importance to industrial and integrated human settlement development, inclusive of bulk and transport infrastructure networks. 

To protect public health, safety and security, fight criminality and clamp down on illegal activities, the government should strengthen co-operative governance to assist municipalities and communities with rehabilitation of derelict mines, sealing open shafts and restoring land in discontinued mining sites. The SACP is calling on the government to expand public employment programmes into this area of work and other environmental protection programmes.  

Once again, the SACP denounces the gang raping of eight young women and robbery of the victims and others in West Village, West Rand, in July this year. The Central Committee pledged its unwavering solidarity with the victims and communities terrorised by criminal gangs, including the so-called “zama-zamas”, in these deserted mining areas. 

We expect nothing less than successful prosecution and maximum sentences on the perpetrators of the gender-based violence and the other criminality. Law enforcement authorities must clampdown on lawlessness in discontinued mining sites nationwide and, across society at large, in every community.  

The Central Committee called for the strengthening of popular mobilisation to intensify the fight against gender-based violence in general beyond the National Women’s Month.  

Destruction of economic infrastructure 

The SACP is deeply concerned by the destruction and theft of economic infrastructure. This has become an economic activity, which involves domestic and international syndicates, and has exacerbated economic crisis in South Africa.  

For instance, the theft of cables, metals and other components from public infrastructure has cost the economy over R50-billion in 2021 alone. Affected infrastructure includes electricity transmission and distribution networks, rail infrastructure, robots, and social infrastructure like schools and clinics.  

The Central Committee therefore welcomed the government’s proposals to place a temporary ban on scrap copper and steel exports. The SACP agrees with COSATU that additional interventions should include tight regulation of the scrap metal sector. Going forward, those who deal in scrap metal must provide proof of its origin, failing which they must be held accountable and shutdown.  

Fighting crime, including drug dealing in our communities 

Crime in South Africa has increased in the context of multiple capitalist crises. The effects include high levels of racialised inequality, poverty and unemployment, which affects approximately 12,3 million active and discouraged work-seekers. Severely impacted are black people, mostly youth and women, signifying the persisting legacy of colonial and apartheid social relations in the economy. 

Challenging the power of capital, which should include directing massive resources towards the historically disadvantaged communities, is required to tackle crime and underdevelopment. 

Neoliberal austerity and failing to spend the allocated budget have contributed to a deterioration in the capacity of the South African Police Service to prevent, combat and investigate crime. This affects mostly working-class and poor communities, while the private sector and the rich, who support neoliberal austerity, have been ramping up their own safety and security spending. In their hypocrisy, the rich have built security enclaves through elaborate private security edifice, while propagating further budget cuts in public safety and security, exposing working-class and poor communities to unabated criminality.

The SACP will intensify its campaign against neoliberal austerity and failure to spend to rebuild the capacity of the Police to prevent, combat and investigate crime. While campaigning for adequate state capacity and decisiveness, the SACP will mobilise an active working-class effort in communities to fight crime, including, but not limited to, gender-based violence, drug dealing, human trafficking, killings and mass shooting, house robberies, stock theft, hijacking of cars and houses, vandalising of infrastructure, as well as stealing of cables and other components.  

Emerging from the Central Committee, the SACP will engage with uMkhonto weSizwe Liberation War Veterans and other military veterans to assist communities to fight crime, working with the Police. We call on business to contribute resources to build this community safety and security infrastructure, including Community Policing Forums.   

Unity and renewal of the ANC and reconfiguration of the Alliance   

The state of the ANC, our ally, and its declining electoral support are a major concern for the SACP. The SACP is especially concerned about the persisting worrying signs that move against the renewal and unity of the ANC and reconfiguration of the Alliance. 

The recently held ANC regional and provincial conferences have experienced numerous disputes, delays in dealing with credentials, allegations of money politics, and divisions along these and other lines of disunity. In many instances, there were no substantive policy discussions, as many of the conferences appeared to have been solely convened to elect new leaders. The developments that followed indicate that some contested leadership positions to take over government positions for factional and private economic interests. 

These and other worrying signs place our ally, and with it, the entire Alliance, in danger of losing the confidence of our people and experiencing further electoral decline. 

The necessary interrelated processes of the renewal and unity of the ANC and reconfiguration of the Alliance have become more urgent.

Strengthening discipline, fighting corporate-capture and corruption, and deepening political education within the ranks of our movement are a key task for the renewal, unity and reconfiguration imperative to succeed.  

The renewal and unity of the ANC and reconfiguration of the Alliance must include building ties with our political and class bases. This requires direct contact through democratic engagement and campaigns with our social support bases, mainly the working-class. 

Working with COSATU, the SACP will seek to strengthen the link between trade union struggles with community development struggles, organising the unorganised into trade unions and politically as well. 

The Central Committee wished COSATU a successful National Congress next month. Our expectations include that COSATU will emerge from the Congress stronger as a class-conscious trade union movement. 

The SACP expresses its unwavering solidarity with the workers in bargaining processes, across the economy, in the private sector, as well as in the public sector.

International solidarity 

The Central Committee reiterated the SACP’s unwavering solidarity with the people of Swaziland struggling for democracy and against the repressive monarchy. 

In Zimbabwe, the economy has almost completely collapsed and disregard of democratic basics continues unabated. The SACP reiterates its solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.  

The regime in Cameroon is unleashing ethnic cleansing against the people in the south. The SACP calls for a peaceful solution and an end to the killings.   

The SACP congratulates the people of Angola for holding free and fair elections and the MPLA for winning the elections. 

The liberation movements across the continent must engage in self-introspection and reflect on the weaknesses that allow reactionary forces to gain ground in Africa. 

The Central Committee denounced the imperialist aggression by the United States and its NATO allies. It is through their expansionist, as part of their imperialist aggression, that the United States and NATO have provoked the war in Ukraine between the United States-dominated NATO as the principal aggressor and Ukraine on the one hand and Russia on the other hand. 

The Central Committee strongly condemned the recent provocation of China in its Taiwan region by the imperialist regime of the United States. 

We reiterate our call for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and for an end to the war on all fronts. 

We pledge our solidarity with the people of the world amidst the United States imperialist aggression and foreign occupation, including but not limited to the people of Palestine, Western Sahara, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

The SACP reiterates its support for the Cuban people and government in their struggle for the United States to lift its unilateral and illegal blockade against Cuba and unconditionally end its occupation of the Cuban territory of Guantanamo Bay. 

The Political Bureau 

In addition to the National Office Bearers elected by the 15th National Congress, the Central Committee elected the following from among its members to the Political Bureau. 

National Office Bearers

Solly Mapaila: General Secretary

Dr Blade Nzimande: National Chairperson

Joyce Moloi-Moropa: National Treasurer

Madala Masuku: First Deputy General Secretary 

Dr David Masondo: Second Deputy General Secretary

Thulas Nxesi: Deputy National Chairperson

Chris Matlhako: Secretary for International Relations  

Tebogo Phadu: Secretary for Political Education  

Nomarashiya Caluza: Secretary for Fundraising 

Fikile Majola: Secretary for Organising and Campaigns 

Dr Rob Davies: Secretary for the Transformation of the Financial Sector  

Jenny Schreiner: Chairperson of Standing Disciplinary Committee (Head of the Office of the Secretariat)

Reneva Fourie: Secretary for Gender Co-ordination

Polly Boshielo: Secretary for Acceleration of Land Reform for Urban and Rural Transformation

Comrade Pat Horn: Secretary for Working-Class and Popular Power in Communities

Yunus Carrim: Secretary for Internal Media and Publications

Dr Alex Mashilo: Secretary for Policy and Research (National Spokesperson)

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA

1921–2022: 101 YEARS OF UNBROKEN STRUGGLE

TOGETHER LET’S BUILD A POWERFUL, SOCIALIST MOVEMENT OF THE WORKERS AND POOR: SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE—BUILD IT NOW!

Solly Mapaila, the SACP General Secretary

FOR INTERVIEW ARRANGEMENTS, MEDIA LIAISON & CIRCULATION SERVICES

Hlengiwe Nkonyane

Communications Officer:

Media Liaison, Multimedia & Digital Communications Platforms Co-ordinator

Mobile: +27 79 384 6550

OFFICE & OTHER CONTACT DETAILS

Office: +2711 339 3621/2

Twitter: SACP1921

Website: www.sacp.org.za

Facebook Page: South African Communist Party

SACP Statement on Workers' National Day of Action

24 August 2022

Together, let us build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor

The SACP fully supports this National Day of Action and expresses its unwavering solidarity with the workers in bargaining processes, across the economy, in the private sector, as well as in the public sector.

We call on workers in the public and private sectors, on unionised workers across federations, on the non-unionised workers and workers in informal work, South Africans and other nationals.

Together, let us build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor, to fight against exploitation in the workplace, at the tills, in the financial sector, and on all fronts.

Let us build unity to advance the common interests of the workers, employed and unemployed, on all fronts.

Let us build maximum unity to eradicate poverty and fight inequality in the distribution of production income, against the oligarchs in the private sector and the bureaucratic bourgeoisie in the public sector.

Let us build working-class power, dear comrades, to complete our liberation and advance, deepen and defend social emancipation, which will be possible for the first time under socialism. Let us strengthen the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggles to build capacity for, momentum towards, and the elements of socialism in the here and now.

Let us dismantle the networks of state capture, in all its manifestation, and clamp down on corruption.

Let us build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor to confront the cost-of-living crisis, right in the workplace, through distributive struggles, and on the public policy front, through redistributive struggles and measures to advance and deepen the second phase of the national democratic revolution.

Social security for all

As part of building a comprehensive social security for all, we need a universal basic income grant. This must be an immediate policy intervention, while the government puts in place effective policies to tackle the unemployment crisis.

Today, the SACP calls on the government to not terminate the Social Relief of Distress Grant at the end of March 2023. The government must maintain this grant and gradually improve it to build a foundation for a universal basic income grant.

The government must take decisive action against rising energy and food prices and tackle food insecurity. While pursuing this direction and building a caring social policy for all, the government must implement the right to decent work for all.

To succeed, all these imperatives require us, the working-class and poor, to build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor.

The right to decent work for all

We call on the unemployed youth, in their millions, on mothers stuck at home without childcare facilities, on those recently retrenched, on those in precarious work: Let us together fight for an economy that makes employment creation a national priority.

Together, let us intensify our campaign to change our international trade, monetary and fiscal policies, to industrialise the country to achieve the right to work for all. To succeed, this needs a comprehensive, high impact industrial policy, which must be supported by an enabling macroeconomic framework—monetary and fiscal policies, and international trade policy.

Overhaul transformation of the financial sector

South Africa needs supportive legislation and regulatory framework for worker-and community-controlled co-operative banks and financial institutions, as well as co-operative credit union leagues and savings schemes, to grow and thrive as a critical pillar of a transformed financial sector.

The banking sector in our country continues to be under the monopoly of profit-driven oligopolies, a few profit-driven commercial banks that also undermine the state. To achieve overhaul transformation of the financial sector, together let us intensify the Financial Sector Campaign, including through rolling mass action to the doorstep of the monopoly-finance capital, the banking oligopolies.

When the government established the state guaranteed loan scheme to assist small, micro and medium-sized enterprises in the face of the COVID-19 distress, the profit-driven banking oligopolies only dispensed a fraction of the potential R200 billion state guaranteed loan scheme. They financed mostly to White owned SMEs, using their lending requirements to lock out the many affected Black owned SMEs, and co-operatives. The legacy of colonialism and apartheid oppression in the profit-driven banking sector is persistent.

The banking oligopolies remain intransigent on other transformation fronts as well. A recent report, released by the Financial Sector Transformation Council, shows that the banking sector leaves much to be desired in terms of transformation regarding ownership, management control, skills development, procurement, enterprise and supplier development, affordable access to finance, socio-economic development, and consumer education.  The transformation scorecards of the top six banks to redress historical imbalances at ownership level were a mere 23,01 points in 2018/2019 and a mere 23,57 points in 2019/2020. In terms of management control, their transformation scorecards were a mere 14,16 points in 2018/019 and 14,8 points in 2019/2020, against a meagre target of 25.

The Reserve Bank must serve all the people, the majority of whom is the working-class and poor

Let us intensify the Financial Sector Campaign for the mandate of the Reserve Bank to explicitly target sustainable employment creation and long-term moderate interest rates.

Amid the acute crisis of racialised and gendered unemployment, affecting 12,4 million active and discouraged unemployed work-seekers, the South African Reserve Bank continues to pursue a high interest rate monetary policy regime. This is unfavourable to employment creation, and to those seeking affordable finance to start and run co-operatives, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The overwhelming majority of the unemployed is the Black youth, regardless of gender. However, their majority are women.

The Reserve Bank, in line with the constitution, must exercise its powers, functions and operational independence to secure balanced and sustainable growth—not to serve the profit-driven interests of the banking oligopolies or monopoly-finance capital. South Africa has never had balance and sustainable growth since the adoption of the constitution in 1996. Today, the SACP wants to warn those entrusted with power in our state institutions, including the Reserve Bank, and the National Treasury, to desist from exercising that power to advance neoliberalism and counter-organise the national imperative to achieve the goals of the Freedom Charter.

Environmental justice for all, through a just transition:

To achieve a just transition, we must intensify mass mobilisation for decisive public investment in innovation, research and development in clean coal technologies and new power generation capacity, among others. Clean coal technologies will offer environmental, health and economic benefits. We need to build publicly owned renewable and cleaner energy generation capacity.

We call on the working-class and poor living in polluted townships, communities at the risk of becoming ghost towns due to “unjust energy transition”, environmental activists and progressive faith-based networks. Together, let us fight against unjust energy transition. Let us fight for a just transition that protects workers’ employment security and creates new work for the unemployed, towards the right of all to work.

The approach adopted by the government under the 1996 GEAR class project (see the White Paper on Energy, December 1998) was against self-sustainability and self-reliability in energy production. By going “the private way”, by shifting to increased procurement of energy from the profit-driven interests (the private power producers), the government is still following the same path. We must unite against this!

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA

1921–2022: 101 YEARS OF UNBROKEN STRUGGLE

TOGETHER LET’S BUILD A POWERFUL, SOCIALIST MOVEMENT OF THE WORKERS AND POOR: SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE—BUILD IT NOW!

Solly Mapaila, the SACP General Secretary

FOR INTERVIEW ARRANGEMENTS, MEDIA LIAISON & CIRCULATION SERVICES

Hlengiwe Nkonyane

Communications Officer:

Media Liaison, Multimedia & Digital Communications Platforms Co-ordinator

Mobile: +27 79 384 6550

OFFICE & OTHER CONTACT DETAILS

Office: +2711 339 3621/2

Twitter: SACP1921

Website: www.sacp.org.za

Facebook Page: South African Communist Party

SACP Message of Condolences to the Family of Anti-apartheid Activist and Trade Unionist Comrade Rita Ndzanga

20 August 2022

The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its heartfelt condolences to the family of anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist, Comrade Rita Ndzanga (17 October 1933 – 17 August 2022).

The SACP also conveys its condolences to the entire trade union movement, the liberation movement, and the people of South Africa whom she served with integrity.

Comrade Rita’s leadership in the union movement began in her youth. She was introduced into union work when, in 1954, she shouldered the responsibility of collecting and administering workers’ subscriptions at the Brick and Tile Workers’ Union in Johannesburg.

From 1955, Rita Ndzanga became an organiser for the South African Railways and Harbour Union, responsible for typing and documenting the complaints of workers and collecting membership dues. There she witnessed first-hand the horrible working conditions that workers were subjected to. Most workers who got injured at work were not even compensated for their workplace injuries, while for those who received any compensation, it was nothing but a pittance.

Comrade Rita’s husband, Comrade Lawrence Ndzanga, was also an organiser at the Railway Workers’ Union, responsible for recruiting members for the union.

The Ndzanga family endured continuous persecution by the apartheid regime for their work in the trade union movement. The apartheid regime banned her in August 1964. The ban followed that of her husband in April 1964. On 12 May 1969, the regime arrested them under the Terrorism Act. In prison, the police tortured her and for six months, from the time of her arrest, denied her the right to change clothing.

Represented by Advocate George Bizos, they were acquitted from their charges, but immediately rearrested.

Besides organising workers, both Rita and Lawrence engaged in community activism, organising against the apartheid system. They formed a local ANC branch, but had to go underground after the banning of the ANC.

Comrade Lawrence died in detention in January 1977. Though devastated by her husband’s death, Comrade Rita was not deterred as she defied the apartheid regime and continued her fight for a free and democratic South Africa.

Comrade Rita’s work in the trade union movement, in collaboration with other union leaders, led to the formation of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) where she served as secretary. Sactu’s Inaugural Conference was held on 4 and 5 March 1955 in Johannesburg. It was succeeded by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in 1985.

In 1956, Comrade Rita formed part of the historic Women’s March, marching against the cruel pass laws system imposed by the apartheid regime to restrict the development of Black people of South Africa.

Together with Comrade Lawrence, her husband, Comrade Rita belonged to an underground cell comprising other two members. In total, the cell was made up of four members. It was part of the wider underground organisation of our movement. This was one pillar of our struggle to overthrow the apartheid regime and replace it with a democratic dispensation towards freedom. This was not the only time comrade Rita and Lawrence worked together in struggle. They were together in the Railway Workers Union and Sactu. Their family was a revolutionary unit itself. From its children, this unit produced combatants of the joint SACP and ANC military formation, uMkhonto weSizwe, the people’s liberation army.

In 1980, she served as organiser for the General and Allied Workers’ Union. Her work in working-class organising led to the formation of the Federation of Transvaal Women.

Comrade Rita served the country as a member of parliament of the democratic parliament, serving in the first, second and third democratic Parliament.

In 2004, the Presidency bestowed upon Comrade Rita The Order of Luthuli for her lifetime contribution to the struggle for workers’ rights and to the realisation of a non-racial, non-sexist, free and democratic South Africa.

In memory of Comrade Rita, the SACP calls for the unity of workers, across union and federation affiliation. The struggle for the emancipation of women from class, race and gender oppression was at the heart of Comrade Rita’s struggle. The trade union movement, along with the rest of the progressive movement, has the responsibility to ensure that women’s rights are recognised and respected in the workplace and the community at large.

The SACP also calls upon unions to intensify the political and ideological training of workers, particularly at shop-floor level, to deepen working-class consciousness in the struggle against capitalism in its imperialist stage.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA

1921–2022: 101 YEARS OF UNBROKEN STRUGGLE

TOGETHER LET’S BUILD A POWERFUL, SOCIALIST MOVEMENT OF THE WORKERS AND POOR: SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE—BUILD IT NOW!

Solly Mapaila, the SACP General Secretary

FOR INTERVIEW ARRANGEMENTS, MEDIA LIAISON & CIRCULATION SERVICES

Hlengiwe Nkonyane

Communications Officer:

Media Liaison, Multimedia & Digital Communications Platforms Co-ordinator

Mobile: +27 79 384 6550

OFFICE & OTHER CONTACT DETAILS

Office: +2711 339 3621/2

Twitter: SACP1921

Website: www.sacp.org.za

Facebook Page: South African Communist Party

TSHWANE ANC ACCUSES DA, ACTIONSA OF DEFENDING MAYOR WILLIAMS

A bid by the party to have Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams removed failed in council on Thursday.

Tshwane Mayor Randal Williams. Picture: Twitter/@CityTshwane

Kgomotso Modise | 26 August 2022 19:28

JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) in Tshwane has accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA of defending their own from exposure at all costs.

A bid by the party to have Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams removed failed in council on Thursday.

The ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters had partnered during a no confidence vote, following Williams being accused of interference in a R26 billion unsolicited bid.

The bid was for a company called Kratos Consortium, to lease land from the city near two power stations, where gas turbines would be built for alternative energy.

ActionSA was the first to speak out against Williams’ involvement in the bid after a recording was leaked of the mayor instructing officials to go ahead with the unsolicited bid.

Soon after, the ANC announced its intention to bring a motion of no confidence against him. But following a meeting of the coalition oversight group, which includes the DA and ActionSA, a decision was made for Williams to be subjected to an independent investigation.

As a result, ActionSA would not back the ANC and the EFF in the no confidence vote. ANC councillor Joel Masilela said this was a clear message to the people of Tshwane: “These minority political parties such as the new kid on the block, ActionSA, they would only be interested in pushing what could be giving them a political mileage as a political party for them to continue to be in the executive at whatever cost”.

The independent investigation into Williams is expected to be completed in less than 60 days from now.

ASUU, Buhari and His Cocky Education Minister

By Martins Oloja

21 August 2022   |   3:55 am

There have been several rhetorical questions on this page – from whether President Muhammadu Buhari would be able to make history to if there would indeed be some redemption songs for the president who has barely nine months and nine days to return to Daura or Kaduna. Verily, verily there is a sense in which one can read some writings on the walls and conclude that the lanky General can’t make history anymore. He never listened to the lyrics  of all redemption songs renditions for the past seven years and three months.

All I have to say now is a recourse to my February 18, 2018 reflection on “Thank God, Buhari Won 2015 Election” (https://guardian.ng/opinion/thank-god-buhari-won-2015-election/) without which the nation would have been engrossed in a mourning and lamentation over the best president Nigeria never had. All we have to say as a people now is ‘Thank you Lord for averting a disaster foretold by directing the steps of the then President Goodluck Jonathan to accept defeat unconditionally in 2015.

As I was saying, now we have seen through the Buhari’s much vaunted capacity, integrity, tenacity via the oratory and sophistry he has used to deal with banditry alone. We have seen how far he has managed fundamental objectives including ‘security and welfare of the people’ as the primary purpose of government he has led these past seven years.

All we can do now is to remind our leader some of the inconvenient truths he ignored at his take-off point. One of the truths he kept in the grave has been the quality of his cabinet he was allowed to make for more than six months in 2015.

This isn’t a piece to deconstruct that cabinet making at this time. There is a time for everything. There is indeed a time for progress report. But a question we will ask him about his cabinet at this time is why he chose an accountant turned journalist Malam Adamu Adamu as his minister to manage a complex and complicated sector, Education at this time. What can the nation recall as the focal point of the administration’s achievement in the areas of education, which is ‘the only source of labour that builds a nation’ as Tunji Olaopa, a retired federal permanent secretary and professor puts it in a recent book, titled, ‘The labour of our heroes…’Yes, it isn’t a time to assess the Buhari’s executive council of the federation (2015-2023).

But in view of what has been happening to tertiary education in the world’s most populous black nation, in the last seven months when all public universities have shut down, and our children in those universities have been at home and their teachers have endured hunger and thirst, is our president proud of the ‘effectiveness and efficiency’ of his minister of education whose statements have so far been toxic in this current ASUU-FG crisis? Why hasn’t the President been personally involved in this negotiation even through the Vice President, a professor of law who was at the University of Lagos?

How did the president feel when he read or heard about the Minister of Education’s outrageous message to the university students to sue the striking lecturers for wasting their time?

What should we the parents of these hapless children do to the minister (Adamu) for the seven years the locusts have eaten out of education in his feeble and lazy hands? When should we the parents and voters sue the President who has continued to keep this minister in charge of Education of this great nation? The last time we heard from the minister on this crisis was when he walked out on student leaders who met him and reminded him of his responsibility to them.

What did the President tell the Minister when he watched the video coverage of Adamu’s walk-out on the students? What did the President do when another Minister denigrated the ASUU members recently at the inauguration of the APC presidential candidate’s campaign officers where the Minister, Festus Keyamo, (SAN) was quoted as saying, ‘let’s discuss more serious things, ASUU’s case isn’t a serious thing’? How does the president want the world to regard him as the leader of ‘the richest’ and most populous African nation that would allow its public universities to be closed for more than six months?

Even if the university teachers have crossed any redline, whose responsibility is it to call them together as the father of the nation? What kind of leader would allow higher education teachers to be treated shabbily like this? Should we understand the current complacency of the Buhari’s government towards education to mean that the President doesn’t have good people around to tell him the truth about the implications of his inaction and the attitude of his education minister at such a time as this?

Why would a leader tell university teachers to go to hell and they should go hungry for seven months without pay and they would like to seek rapprochement with them and the parents of the students Adamu is challenging to sue their teachers? Again, where is Nigeria’s National Assembly at this critical time? Why are our representatives just concerned about the next election without caring a hoot bout the next generation of leaders? Are the suffering and malnourished students of today not going to be the leaders of tomorrow?

How many of the more than two hundred million people would have the resources to send their children to good schools abroad as our leaders are apparently doing today? Are our leaders aware that most of our university lecturers in science and technology schools are relocating abroad in search of greener pastures?

Does the education minister tell the president and some Labour Ministry’s arrogant negotiators that most serious nations, especially some in Nordic countries pay teachers better than other public officers because they believe that only qualified and satisfied teachers can produce better graduates?

Aren’t they aware that in the United States, which is still proud of its exceptionalism on all fronts, public officers including policy makers are still concerned about the fact that their American children (students) are well outside the top-ten international student rankings in reading, science and mathematics apart from the nation’s position of leadership on everything from the economy to the military to issues of moral authority?

They (Americans) are beginning to argue that their rating “will continue to plummet unless we take dramatic action…”. Michelle Rhee, a former chancellor of Washington D.C., public schools from 2007-2010, now a driving force behind American education reform, has already written a classic on this development, titled, ‘Radical: Fighting To Put Students First’.

The founder and CEO of ‘StudentsFirst’ has drawn attention to the fact that although the United States is well known as a world leader in innovation, boasting of brilliant thinkers and trendsetting companies, yet there is a fact that, that status is at grave risk because American children are getting outside the top-ten international student ranking. The power behind Samsung, a global brand is South Korea, with a population of 51.3 million.

They have more than Samsung to export to the world because of the power that quality education that they take seriously has given them. They are among top-five countries with excellence in Research and Development (R&D) funding in global context. That is their power. You can make the same claim of Singapore. The economic power of Singapore isn’t tied to any extractive industry. It is only linked to their intellectual power. Yes their brainpower through education quality their legend, Lee Kuan Yew bequeathed to them.

There are more examples of these powerful countries. How many times shall we write that there is a nexus between the economic power of South Africa and the quality of its universities? It is not by accident that the best university in Africa in all global ratings is the University of Cape Town.

Is it not also true that of the top ten universities in Africa, most of the times, six to eight are in South Africa? What we are saying isn’t about setting up technical universities, agriculture universities, medical sciences universities, maritime universities, police and army universities that are underfunded and ill-equipped. This isn’t about the number of graduates in the country. It is about the quality of the graduates. It is about the capacity of the graduates to solve 21st century’s challenges in this age of the high-tech, digital disrupters.

This is why the Buhari government should note that although we are helpless now about what his administration has made of Nigeria’s Human Development Index (HDI) through education and health policy thrust, posterity will remember him as the leader who allowed insurgents called Boko Haram campaigners (anti-education campaigners) to destroy even foundation of education in his northern Nigeria and he did nothing for eight years to resolve the crisis of tertiary education he inherited. And so after May 29, 2023, we will remember to recall him and his education minister to account for what happened to higher education quality, the main weapon we need to resolve all other problems in the country.

Even if we are helpless, we will continue to recall that he also promised to solve the ASUU crisis he blasted his successor for when he was campaigning in 2015. He actually noted that his predecessor was quite irresponsible for failure to solve that same ASUU problem while wasting money in other areas including too many jets in the presidential fleet and leakage in oil revenue, unbridled fuel subsidy, among other wasters.

The Buhari administration should be told that we will continue to repeat the story I have told many times here about what any powers need to destroy any country. Yes, a south African teacher has said that you don’t need any atomic bomb to destroy any country. According to the teacher, all you need to do for the collapse of any country is destroying its education standards.

The following words posted by a teacher at the entrance gate of a South African university sums up where the Nigerian leader and his education minister are leading us: ‘Destroying any nation does not require the use of atomic bombs or the use of long-range missiles.

It only requires lowering the quality of education and allowing cheating in the examinations by the students.” The result is that: Patients die at the hands of doctors. Buildings collapse at the hands of engineers. Money is lost at the hands of economists and accountants. Humanity dies at the hands of religious scholars. Justice is lost at the hands of judges. Because, “The collapse of education is the collapse of the nation…”

And here is the conclusion of the whole matter: President Buhari should immediately direct his Education Minister, Adamu to swallow his pride and vanity and resolve the ASUU-FG avoidable conflict now or never. It has become a symbol of suffering and shame to the Buhari administration, which will in the end be blamed for the collapse of public universities in Nigeria.

Nigeria Strike: ASUU Tells Buhari What To Learn From Jonathan

ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke

By Seun Adeuyi

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 15:57:29 GMT

Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has advised the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to learn how to resolve the ongoing strike from former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The union has been on strike since February and all efforts to resolve the dispute has not yielded results.

Osodeke said this in an interview with AIT’s Focus Nigeria.

According to him, the immediate past administration engaged the union in a 14-hour negotiation to resolve the issue.

He said the government should set up a committee comprising people who love the country and can negotiate dispassionately.

“Government should for once go the way of Goodluck Jonathan. And in one night, we had that meeting for 14 hours. Open. Both sides were open, no class, no power, no sitting power, and we looked at all the issues and we resolved it within 14 hours.

“If this government can put out a strong team, if the president cannot be there, let him put a strong team together or people who are not part of those who are telling lies presently.

“People who love this country. They don’t have to be in government. If you can put this thing together and we meet to look at how we can resolve this national problem,” he said.

The strike entered 195th day on Sunday. Some of the lecturers’ demands include funding for the revitalisation of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances, and adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a preferred payment option, instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and payment of promotion arrears.

Strike Deadlock Shuts Nigerian Universities for Months

By CHINEDU ASADU

Adenekan Ayomide, 27, an undergraduate student turned a taxi driver following nationwide university strike, poses for a photograph inside his taxi in Abuja, Nigeria, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. “Nobody is talking about school again,” said Ayomide, who said he is now working more than one job and the budget he had for getting through university now looks unrealistic. (AP Photo/Chinedu Asadu)

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Adenekan Ayomide had been attending the University of Abuja for two years when the lecturers went on strike in February. The 27-year-old undergraduate student hoped he would return to school quickly but immediately took a job as a taxi driver to pay bills.

Unfortunately for him, the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities has now clocked six months and Ayomide’s hopes of returning to classes anytime soon grow thin.

“Nobody is talking about school again,” said Ayomide, who said he is working more than one job and the budget he had for getting through university now looks unrealistic.

University strikes are common in Nigeria, which has more than 100 public universities and an estimated 2.5 million students, according to Nigeria’s National Universities Commission. The universities here have recorded at least 15 strikes covering a cumulative period of four years since 2000.

The latest strike, however, is biting harder on an education sector that is struggling to recover from a COVID-19 lockdown and an earlier strike that lasted for most of 2020.

No alternative means of learning is provided for students because “more than 90%” of lecturers in Nigerian universities are members of the academic staff union, according to Haruna Lawal Ajo, director of public affairs at Nigeria’s universities commission.

The striking lecturers are demanding a review of their conditions of service including the platform the government uses to pay their earnings, improved funding for the universities and the payment of their salaries withheld since the strike started.

Talks between the lecturers and the government ended in deadlock this month, dashing hopes of a compromise agreement.

Lecturers have faulted the government’s position, arguing that the government has still not provided higher pay for lecturers and more funds for the education sector which it agreed to in 2009.

If the government has not fulfilled a promise made in 2009 by 2022, how can it be trusted? asked Femi Atteh, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin in northcentral Kwara state who now works with his wife to run a food retail business.

“I just see ASUU (the union) trying to fight for the rights of its people. ... Nigerian lecturers are far behind in terms of welfare when compared to others,” said Atteh.

Atteh said some of his colleagues are moving abroad for better opportunities and improved pay.

“Our situation in this country is just in a sorry state,” said lecturer Sabi Sani at the University of Abuja. After 12 years of teaching, Sani said his monthly salary is “not even enough to pay my children’s school fees.”

He said that when “more lecturers realize they can migrate, we will be left with unqualified lecturers to teach our children (because) all the qualified ones will run away.”

It is not just lecturers who are eyeing relocation for better opportunities.

Amidat Ahmed, a 22-year-old economics student at the University of Abuja said the strike has prevented her from getting clearance that would see her wrap up her undergraduate studies in the school because lectures are not available. She is now considering going abroad for a fresh undergraduate degree program.

“My life is stagnant,” said Ahmed who said she is working two jobs including one as a shoemaker where she is learning the skill to set up a business later in life.

It is a case of using the lemons to make lemonade, she said.

“Apart from this (learning the shoe-making trade), I don’t think I have done anything with my life all this while and it has been six months.”

Across Nigeria, students are looking for work to survive. Rent and other bills have accumulated, making things worse for many from poor backgrounds in this nation with a 40% poverty rate, according to the latest government statistics.

Some students’ financial situation is better when school is in session as a small proportion of the students get funding provided by nonprofits and government agencies.

After the latest round of talks to end the strike was unsuccessful, Ayomide remained on the roads as a taxi driver.

“I don’t have 5 naira ($0.012) in my account and I cannot go home because there is no money,” said Ayomide. His only option is to work long hours, he said. “Sometimes, I sleep at the airport or inside the car.”

“We just have to double our hustle and hope for the best,” he said. “This is the country where we are, so we have no choice.”