SACP Mpumalanga Statement Post the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Congress, Provincial Executive Committee

16 April 2025

The South African Communist Party in Mpumalanga held the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Congress Provincial Executive Committee via Zoom Video Conferencing on the 13th of April 2025. The meeting received political, organisational, financial reports and addresses from the Young Communist League of South Africa as well as an input from the Central Committee.

The PEC sat at a time when the SACP faced a very difficult moment in the history of our revolution. It is a moment where we need to contend with the recent SACP 5th Special National Congress resolution of contesting state and popular power through the ballot which changes the material conditions and the approach towards achieving the National Democratic Revolution.

The meeting also took place at a time when the Party and other progressive forces are celebrating the lives and times of our fallen heroes; the late General Secretary, Comrade Chris Hani, Comrade Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu and the former Thembisile Hani Sub-district secretary in Ephraim Mogale district, Comrade David Mokoena. 

The state of the NDR

The Party believes that killing the late General Secretary, Comrade Chris Hani was a well calculated move by counter revolutionary forces to kill the SACP in order to derail the National Democratic Revolution. This is very important as history has shown that since the dawn of democracy, the SACP as the champion of working-class interests has been targeted for liquidation by these forces.

The 1996 class project attempted to derail the NDR by introducing the neoliberal policies in the country which resulted in widespread poverty, unemployment and inequalities. The scale of the degeneration, and the emergence of comprador and parasitic strata within the movement and government, was to prove much greater and more widespread than we had predicted.

This phenomenon has also led to the growing social and political alienation in our country which has resulted in both voter non-participation and voter non-registration which amounts to the majority of people staying away from casting their votes. This is also getting fuelled by the internal fights within the movement that is normally perpetrated by preferences when the time of conferences arrives as well as the anti-communist agenda driven by factions captured by tenderpreneurs.

The mobilisation of the working class behind the National Democratic Revolution and the revolutionary character of the Party that is guided by democratic centralism are important as our ultimate goal in the SACP is to build a communist society in which all forms of exploitation of one person by another will end and in which all the products of human endeavour will be distributed according to need.

South African Road to Socialism

Communities:

Community activism remains the bedrock and a critical entry point to mobilise and educate the masses behind the National Democratic Revolution. Without community activism informed by class consciousness, the SACP will find it difficult to achieve socialism because this is where Party branches must make the Party a living organism.

This is also where the Party needs to tackle all basic needs of the people through building campaigns that will respond to those challenges. SACP branches must be everywhere; they must be central in all community stakeholder engagements; including visiting churches in the upcoming Easter weekend and attending to the issues raised by various churches. The Party also needs to strengthen the existing relations with traditional leaders and healers in our communities.

The SACP also needs to strengthen its campaign for the upcoming Local Government Elections by implementing the South African Road to Socialism. This should also be done to mobilise the masses to be able to identify themselves with socialist ideas. We will use the recent campaign of the People’s Red Caravan as a platform of engagement with communities throughout the province.

Workplace:

The Party will continue to engage with the trade union movement and their affiliates, including those that are not affiliated to COSATU. This is to build Party structures that will respond to immediate challenges facing the workers at the shop floor level. The Party as the vanguard of the working class and poor has the responsibility to unite workers irrespective of their affiliation.

With the perpetual increase of austerity measures, the Party working with trade unions must also work to roll back the frontiers of the neoliberal agenda which continues to make the lives of workers miserable. The continued retrenchments and casualisation and undermining of labour laws necessitate the Party to pay special attention to these effects.

The Party is dismayed by the lack of progress on the issue of 13 workers that were burnt beyond recognition between Acornhoek and Hoedspruit in a car accident two months ago. Their families need to find closure and bury their loved ones. We are calling for the laboratory processes to be expedited. The Party will also lead a public safety and reliable transport campaign to reduce some of these accidents especially on the state of buses for the Great North Transport and other related modes of transport in the public space.

With the daily increase of unemployment, the Party calls for a revisit to the illegal mines and beneficiation of those minerals to reduce criminal activities by illegal miners (Zama-Zamas). We also call for the re-opening of Smelter company in Mashishing for employment purposes to members of the communities in and around the area which will result in the reduction of many trucks on the N4 to Mozambique resulting in working-class vulnerability.

We welcome the decision by COSATU to host the main event of MAY Day celebration in Mpumalanga province, Steve Tshwete Local Municipality. As the Party, we shall work with COSATU in ensuring the success of this event. This will also be an opportunity for the SACP to further mobilise the masses on the ground to support not only the programme of COSATU but also our programmes going forward.

International

The re-election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States has redefined the global balance of forces that also presents left forces with an opportunity to unite and confront imperialism head on. The level of resistance by leaders of other countries also gives hope that America is confronting challenges on the role of playing a ‘Big Brother syndrome’ in global affairs.

The posture of Russia and China to resist being bullied by the US government gives hope towards building a multipolar world where each country can be given the respect it deserves for its sovereignty. We also appreciate that China did not sit back when Trump imposed tariffs on them.  BRICS+ countries and other progressive forces should stand in solidarity with one another during this time of international crisis.

The developments in Burkina Faso under the leadership of Ibrahim Traore give the people of Africa hope that the continent can exist and prosper without relying on the imperialist West. We need to make a call for African countries to unite. The wars that are taking place all over the continent are not in the interest of African people and will need to be resolved amicably.

The SACP welcomes the election of the new president of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. She follows in the footsteps of other women leaders like former African Union Commission Chairperson, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. This gives hope that the struggle for woman emancipation is finding expression. 

ISSUED BY: South African Communist Party Mpumalanga Province

For further information, contact:

Lucky Mbuyane

SACP Spokesperson

082 351 5804

OR

Lesetja Dikgale

SACP Spokesperson

076 869 4360

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Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.

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