South African Communist Party

Post-Political Bureau Meeting Statement

Friday, 27 September 2024: - The South African Communist Party (SACP) will hold the 7^th Plenary of its 15^th National Congress Central Committee from 11 to 13 October 2024 and a Special National Congress in December 2024.

These two major events will be preceded by the launch of the Red October Campaign 2024–2025. The SACP Political Bureau held its ordinary bimonthly meeting on Monday, 23 October 2024, to prepare for these important events, among others.

As a standard item, the Political Bureau first analysed the developing political situation to give direction to the work of the SACP as the highest decision-making body of the Party when the Central Committee is not in session. The Political Bureau also received several reports, including a report on the work of the Central Ethics Commission.

Neither neo-liberal nor state capture networks

In June 2024, the SACP convened a Special Political Bureau meeting extended to provincial secretaries and chairpersons to consult on the way forward following the decline of the ANC to below the minimum of 50 per cent plus one required to form an outright majority government. The Special Political Bureau reaffirmed the SACP’s standing programmatic perspective: “Neither neo-liberalism nor state capture”.

In maintaining the strategic consistency, the SACP adopted a position strongly opposed to seeking coalition arrangements with the DA and the MKP, the political representatives of neo-liberal class forces and negative reaction against a section of those implicated in state capture from being held accountable, respectively.

Hence, the SACP adopted its proposal for the Alliance to pursue an ANC-led minority government. While this minority government option could integrate the features of a government of national unity, it had to exclude the DA and the MKP based on the aforementioned grounds, among others. The SACP made this clear in the Alliance Secretariat and Political Council briefing session, respectively.

This path was not only possible but crucial for our movement to shatter the chains of capital, bourgeois dictatorship, and push forward a national-revolutionary programme against neo-liberalism. Because of neo-liberalism, unemployment rose to crisis-high levels of above 20 per cent since 1996 by the narrow definition that excludes discouraged work seekers. As it worsened above 20 per cent, unemployment surpassed 30 per cent by the narrow definition, 40 per cent by the expanded definition that accounts for discouraged work seekers and 50 per cent for Africans by the same definition. Our economy continued to de-industrialise, with manufacturing output, as a proportion of total national output, and manufacturing employment plummeting. Poverty continued at crisis-high levels. World record levels of inequality entrenched. In this context, the working class still endures a social reproduction crisis.

The problematic situation that we now face, called the “government of national unity” including the DA, was a deliberate political choice. This was pursued by the ANC, which, in contradiction to the Alliance agreement, excluded the representation and participation of Alliance partners in the post-election technical committee and negotiation team. The SACP clarified that it is strongly opposed to and thus did not endorse this and its outcome at any moment.

These are adopted SACP positions, contrary to the misinformation, which the Political Bureau denounced, that they are the private views of our SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila. In reaffirming these perspectives, the Political Bureau tasked the SACP National Office Bearers with dealing decisively with the misinformation, including at the upcoming bilateral meeting with the ANC and beyond that at the Alliance Political Council.

In the same vein, that the SACP participated in Alliance engagements on setting up the executive, against total alienation from our and indeed the broader working-class campaign and votes for the ANC in the May 2024 elections, does not mean we endorsed the coalition arrangement with the DA. To give practical expression to this, we will continue to intensify our standing opposition to any right-wing shift in government composition and policy, making our views clear for all to know.

It is a fact that while it is called the “government of national unity”, it is, in reality, anchored in a grand coalition between the ANC and the DA. This central feature of the “government of national unity” has also become clearer with new developments, besides the core tenets of the elite pact. Included in the developments is the boycott by the Minister of Basic Education, who is from the DA, of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent signing of the Education Laws Amendment Bill into law and the President’s public inaction against the reckless insubordination.

In terms of our country’s constitution, the executive authority of the state is vested in the President, who appoints ministers and exercises the executive authority together with the ministers. Instead of decisive action against the reckless insubordination, the President postponed immediate implementation of two critical clauses, 4 and 5, of the Education Laws Amendment Act. Meanwhile, these clauses are aimed at eliminating racial and other unfair discrimination against learners, who are Africans in particular, in the determination of school language and admission policies.

Immediate programme

The Political Bureau welcomed the Working-Class Leadership School initiative by the Chris Hani Institute. The inaugural programme of the school took place from Friday to Sunday, 20 to 22 September 2024.

Members of the SACP Central Committee, led by Mapaila, and COSATU Central Executive Committee, participated in the inaugural programme of the school. The Working-Class Leadership School is not an event but part of the broader revolutionary process to build working-class leadership in our society. As it unfolds, the school will expand in line with our commitment to forge a popular left front and build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor.

We are making it clear for all in our country and the world at large to know that we are not solely dependent on the reconfiguration of the Alliance, important as it is. This is a key issue for our Special National Congress to be held in December 2024 based on our comprehensive evaluation of the May 2024 election results and post-election developments. It is also a key issue for our 16^th National Congress to be held in July 2027.

To prepare for the Special National Congress, the Political Bureau approved the central thrust of the direction that the reports and discussion documents destined for its consideration should take. This will be presented to the Central Committee Plenary to be held from 11 to 13 October 2024 for final approval.

Red October Campaign and nationwide protest action

On 6 October 2024, we will launch the Red October Campaign 2024–2025 under the theme, “Tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Implement the NHI now”, supported by the theme, “Together, let’s forge a popular left front and build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor”. 

On 7 October 2024, we will participate in the COSATU-led Section 77 nationwide strike action.

Afterwards, we will focus on the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement through protest action when it is tabled in Parliament.

These are among our public campaigns against neo-liberalism, including austerity, in our policy space. Through these and other campaigns and overall programme, we seek to resolve the multiple crises of unemployment, poverty, inequality and social reproduction, overcome uneven development and empower the masses in economic terms.     

Report of the Central Ethics Commission

The Political Bureau received a report on the work of the Central Ethics Commission. In terms of the SACP constitution, this commission is mandated to take proactive measures to ensure personal, organisational, political and ideological discipline in ranks of the SACP, including attending to allegations of corruption.

On 8 January 2024, the SACP National Chairperson Prof. Blade Nzimande proactively wrote to the Central Ethics Commission, requesting its attention to and engagement on three sets of allegations directed towards him in the public domain. The allegations included those spread in the media by Mthunzi Mdwaba against Nzimande in his capacity as the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Enoch Godongwana as the Minister of Finance, Thulas Nxesi as the Minister of Labour and Employment, and Fikile Mbalula as the ANC Secretary-General. It is now common knowledge that several court judgments have since been issued against Mdwaba following legal actions taken against him. These include the court judgments ordering him to stop defamatory claims and declaring unlawful what he claimed was a legitimate contract from which his allegations of improper conduct emanated.

The Central Ethics Commission was satisfied that Nzimande conducted himself ethically in response to the allegations through the legal cease and desist letter to Mdwaba and by referring the allegations to the commission for its independent investigation.

Other allegations related to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), including those widely spread in the media by the group calling itself the Organisation Against Tax Abuse (OUTA). OUTA also politically campaigned for the removal of Nzimande from the government.

A separate allegation was that Tilson Manyoni, a businessperson, was a Special Advisor to Nzimande in his role as Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, but that, despite this allegation, Manyoni was awarded a contract by the NSFAS.

The Central Ethics Commission found that the OUTA relied on unverified recordings and did not follow the fundamental rule of justice, audi alterum partem, meaning “listen to the other side” or “let the other side be heard as well” before you can draw conclusions concerning that side. The commission’s conclusion emphasised the need to maximise reliance on verifiable evidence than merely the “report” by OUTA. 

It also became clear both to the commission and the public that Manyoni was not a Special Advisor to Nzimande, contrary to the allegation. He was a representative of business stakeholders on a statutory board and reserved all his rights in law.

While the Central Ethics Commission concluded that it would continue to monitor the developments and, if necessary, conduct further work, based on the facts available it found no verifiable evidence of corrupt conduct or violations of SACP ethics by Nzimande.

The commission emphasised the urgent need for every SACP member to ensure that there is and to enforce an uncompromising anti-corruption strategy wherever they are deployed in a position of executive authority, ensuring that the fight against corruption is relentless and rooted in our revolutionary values.

The work of the commission proves that no one within the SACP, regardless of position, falls outside the sphere of accountability. The Political Bureau pledged its support to the commission’s work to strengthen its capacity, including through efforts to address the limitations that the commission identified in discharging its duties.

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Issued by the South African Communist Party,
Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.