SACP+message+on+95th+Anniversary+of+the+ANC

SACP statement, Thu 2007/01/11 08:27 AM
=SACP Message on the 95th anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC)=

The SACP wishes to take this opportunity to wish our ally, the African National Congress (ANC) a happy 95th anniversary. The SACP is of the view that it is 95 years that the ANC, together with its Allies, should indeed be proud of. As the SACP we are also proud to have been associated with the ANC as an ally for most of the period of the existence of our two formations.


 * An alliance built upon unity in action**

During the very long history of struggle of our Alliance, one of the most important milestones shall forever remain that of the defeat of the apartheid regime and the establishment of an ANC-led democratic government in April 1994. The glue that has for decades held our Alliance together has been that of unity in action in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, and since 1994, the struggle for the reconstruction and development of our country for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of our people. Amongst other things this unity in action has been guided by the vision as contained in the Freedom Charter adopted in Kliptown in 1955.


 * Achievements since 1994**

The SACP is indeed very proud of the many achievements made by the ANC and the government it leads since 1994. Amongst other things these achievements include massive government resource transfers to the poor, to people with disabilities and urban and rural development. We are also proud about the radical transformation of the apartheid labour market into one that seeks to build upon the many advances made by the working class during the struggle against apartheid.

The ANC has also led a heroic struggle to consolidate our fledgling democracy, including the ending of politically inspired violence and the significant progress towards building South Africa as one single nation with a common destiny.


 * Contemporary challenges facing our movement and revolution**

Our country, under the leadership of our glorious movement, the ANC, has also gone a long way in strengthening our institutions of representative democracy. However representative democracy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for consolidating the 1994 democratic breakthrough. In the true traditions of our movement it is still very important to ensure that our people remain a mobilised force and as the bedrock for strengthening our democracy and driving the transformation agenda. Therefore it is important to build a campaigning ANC that is permanently in touch with the mass of our people. Through our joint Alliance programmes, especially through the Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign, the SACP is committed to continue playing the role of a reliable and dependable ally in this regard. A demobilised ANC cannot be able to lead the all-important struggle for the transformation of our country to benefit the overwhelming majority of our people.

In the light of the above, the SACP is of the view that the fundamental challenge facing our revolution is that of rebuilding a popular mass movement, led by the ANC and driving transformational campaigns. We must at all times guard against the danger of leaving the huge transformational effort facing our country only to government structures. The masses of our people must be active participants and combatants in the transformation of their own conditions.

As the SACP we have made and shall continue to make our contribution in the mass mobilisation of the workers and the poor of our country, through ongoing mass campaigns, principally around our Red October Campaign on building co-operatives, the transformation of the financial sector, land and agrarian transformation, food and social security, jobs, and for a safe, accessible and affordable public transport system. It is therefore important that the ANC itself must lead such mass campaigns and also be visible in the campaigns of its allied organisations and the broader progressive mass movement. This is a clarion call from the emancipatory and revolutionary vision of the Freedom Charter! It is for these reasons that we welcome the ANC’s Imvuselelo campaign, and hope that this campaign will be used as a key platform to rebuild an ANC-led mass popular front for the transformation of our country. Without the leadership of the ANC on this mass front our revolution will be weakened, if not rolled back.

A critical area that requires ANC visible leadership is the struggle for gender transformation. In this regard we welcome the establishment of the progressive women’s movement and the role played by the ANCWL and other allied formations in it. The challenge however is to ensure that this movement is led by ordinary working and poor women, in both urban and rural areas, and remains focused on issues affecting them.

The struggle to defend, deepen and reclaim the revolutionary traditions and values of our movement remains one of the most critical challenges facing our revolution in the current period. Ascendancy to power by the ANC, welcome and important as it is, has also been accompanied by new tendencies that pose serious dangers to our revolution; the problems of greed, patronage, and corruption. As a movement we need a renewed mass based and mass driven focus in ensuring that the ANC lives up to its commitment as an organisation with a working class bias, serving the interests of ordinary South Africans, who are overwhelming black and poor.

The cancer of corruption erodes the very revolutionary traditions and image of the ANC amongst our people, and constitutes one of the biggest threats to the consolidation of our democracy. It is a struggle that must be prioritised in all our programmes, campaigns and activities.

However, equally important the struggle against corruption must be waged simultaneously with the transformation of our criminal justice system, buttressed by mass mobilisation and vigilance. We must at all times ensure that organs of the criminal justice system act in a manner that is above reproach, without fear or favour, but in a manner that has integrity and the respect of the mass of the ordinary people of our country. These organs must at all times remain beyond any suspicions that they are doing things other than those they were set up to do. It is with the same mass vigour that we must seek to confront all the other major problems facing society, including crime, criminality and the moral regeneration effort in our country. We should not allow these scourges to steal what has been achieved by our people during the past 95 years of the existence of the ANC.

The SACP welcomes the fact that under the ANC government our economy has experienced unprecedented growth. However, this has largely been a job-destroying rather than job creating growth, and this remains the Achilles heel of our revolution. Even the minimal jobs that have been created over the last year, have been low quality, casualised and unsustainable jobs. The challenge for the ANC therefore is that of honestly facing this reality, including a critical review of our growth path, genuinely acting together and effectively consulting with its allies.

On the international front, we salute the work done by our government on the continent and beyond, especially our resolute commitment to advance multileralism, peace and development. But this must not be left to governments alone, and for this reason it is therefore important for the ANC to increase its role internationality, by building stronger party to party relations and solidarity with progressive political parties and movements throughout the world, and at the same co-ordinating with its allies. South Africa’s joining of the UN Security Council also brings with it new responsibilities that requires renewed focus by the ANC on deepening party to party relations and multi-lateral solidarity forums.

As we celebrate 95 years of glorious struggle and sacrifice, we also welcome government’s renewed commitment in the fight against the HIV/AIDS scourge, including the emerging consensus on the comprehensive nature of the strategy. Again we expect that this matter should not be left to government structures alone. The ANC, together with its allies, should lead in this effort of mobilising our people to drive a comprehensive campaign to defeat the scourge, including a possibility of establishing community brigades to educate our people, supporting home-based care, prevention and treatment. Critical in this is for ANC structures to be in the forefront of the transformation of the entire health system in our country as a critical platform for a caring and healthy country. It is only from this perspective that we will be able to fight the HIV/AIDS scourge and all other diseases.

We are also celebrating the 95th anniversary of the ANC during the year that our two formations will be holding important gatherings, the SACP’s 12th Congress and the ANC’s 52nd National Conference. The preparatory processes for both these events must be accompanied by mass mobilisation and intense engagement with our own constituencies through our respective programmes of action, so that they are not treated as stand-alone events.

We are raising all these challenges because we are confident that the ANC, our glorious movement, is capable of rising to the occasion. The pressing answers that we need for the contemporary challenges are to be found in our very own heroic struggles and key documents like the Freedom Charter, Morogoro and the RDP documents.

The SACP remains a committed and reliable partner in ensuring that we stay focused on these tasks through the building of a vibrant, dynamic and democratic ANC-led Alliance. We shall not be found wanting!

Let us not allow our revolution to be stolen by greed and other values foreign to our traditions!


 * Happy 95th Anniversary**

Issued by:


 * Blade Nzimande**
 * General Secretary**

For further enquiries please contact


 * Malesela Maleka**
 * SACP Spokesperson**
 * Tel: 011 339 3621**
 * Fax: 011 339 4244**
 * Cell: 082 226 1802**
 * Email: Malesela@sacp.org.za**
 * Website: [|www.sacp.org.za]**

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