SACP PROVINCIAL COUNCIL CALLS FOR MAXIMUM UNITY OF THE ANC-LED ALLIANCE IN GAUTENG
The SACP Gauteng Province held a successful Provincial Council (PC), its highest decision making constitutional structure in between Provincial Congresses. The PC was held on Saturday, 05th July 2014 in the City of Johannesburg. The PC was attended by branch delegates from the length and breadth of the province. The PC was addressed by the 13th National Congress Central Committee member, comrade Charles Setsubi.
Leaders of the Alliance who delivered messages of support include the Provincial Secretary of Cosatu, comrade Dumisani Dakile, the Provincial Chairperson of SANCO, comrade Aubrey Nxumalo and the Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the Young Communist League (YCL), comrade Thembinkosi Bhulu.
The PC is deeply pleased by the presence of Cde David Makhura, the new Premier of Gauteng for his participation. It expresses profound appreciation for his address, outlining his government' strategic vision for the province as contained in the State of the Province Address (SOPA). The PC noted that in the last seven (7) years, it never had the opportunity to interact with a Premier, although several but fruitless attempts were persistently made.
The PC appreciates the swift and positive response by Premier Makhura, hardly two months in office, to meet the SACP as the only Marxist-Leninist vanguard Party of the working class.
ANC ELECTION VICTORY IN GAUTENG CHARACTERISED AS DECISIVE AND RESOUNDING
The PC analysed the local and international class balance of forces with a specific focus on the national and provincial elections held in May 2014. The development of the world capitalist crisis assumed the centre-stage. It was identified as a key and decisive objective factor and underpinning context for the class configurations in the recent elections.
It was under such conditions that Imperialist sponsored "low intensity counter-revolution" by a coalition of right-wing, populist, demagogic and fascist forces coalesced on a desperate but dismally failed ploy to weaken and liquidate the ruling capacity of the ANC-led Alliance. The PC unanimously agreed that, under the prevailing circumstances, the 53 percent ANC election victory was decisive and resounding and therefore called on the ANC-led Alliance to immediately identify strategic and principal tasks for the forthcoming local government elections.
The PC rejected a populist and neo-fascist narrative, apportioning blame and finger-pointing President Jacob Zuma's collective leadership for the "below expectation" election victory of the ANC in the province. The PC agreed that the problems of diminished ANC election victory, dates back to the early days following the 2009 Provincial Conference that marked the beginning of paralysis and competition between the ANC-led Alliance and organs of the democratic state.
The PC acknowledged that the absence of an organic revolutionary relationship between the ANC-led Alliance and the state in the so-called "service delivery" protests that plagued the province for the last five years was fundamentally one of the principal factors that contributed to the 53 percent election outcome for the ANC in the province.
UNITY OF THE ANC-LED ALLIANCE
Having noted the objective reality of a determined, arrogant and aggressive Imperialist sponsored counter-revolution in the province led by the Democratic Alliance and other opposition parties, the PC called for maximum unity of the ANC and its Alliance partners. It concluded that this maximum unity constitutes the principal task of the ANC-led Alliance in the province and the basis of a political program for leading the masses of our people in the radical second phase of the national democratic revolution.
It was within this objective key defining feature of the class balance of forces in our province that the PC mandated the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) to analyse and evaluate the strategic and tactical approaches towards the forthcoming ANC Provincial Conference.
The PC developed a set of core principles to guide the work of the PEC in this regard.
Firstly, the PC reaffirmed the historic and most profound principle of the independence and autonomy of Alliance partners.
Secondly, that the situation in Gauteng, in particular the 53 percent election outcome, requires a unique, special, creative, and dynamic approach in the province. The PC emphasised that as part of the effort to maximise the unity of all revolutionary and progressive forces in Gauteng under the ANC led Alliance, the principal question is to ensure that processes towards the ANC Provincial Conference are far beyond the ordinary.
Whilst respecting internal democratic processes of Alliance partners, the PC strongly cautioned against a disregard of the dangers of the 2009 ANC Provincial Conference divisive template that served as the basis of the diminished ANC electoral outcome in the province and argued for corrective political lessons to be learnt.
In this regard, the PC emphasised that any desperate attempt to mechanically apply simplistic and one-sided, winner takes all solutions that reaffirm factional groupings, will definitely lead to the common ruin of all revolutionary forces in Gauteng province. The PEC was mandated to work towards outlining the most extra-ordinary and advanced way-forward as the basis to reconstitute the province on a solid basis of unity.
In conclusion, the PC acknowledged that the fundamental objective of unifying the ANC-led Alliance, based on the best strategic and tactical choices towards the ANC Provincial Congress, is to reaffirm the ANC-led Alliance as the only centre of power. This should end the unfortunate and paralysing phenomena of the last five (5) years, of competition and horse race between organs of the state and those of ANC-led Alliance.
Statement issued by Mpapa Kanyane, SACP Gauteng Deputy Provincial Secretary, July 7 2014
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