South African Communist Party

22 July 2020

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is concerned about the impact of the government’s decisions in relation to education and public transport on the working-class. The government should engage with trade unions in the basic education sector meaningfully and in good faith, and thus take the calls made by the labour movement seriously. The government must consistently draw guidance from science in handling the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, as emphasised by the South African Democratic Teachers Union in its engagements with the Department of Basic Education.

It is contradictory for the government to provide for a 100 per cent load factor in local mass transport on the one hand, while emphasising social distancing in schools on the other, as if the learners, teachers and other workers in schools do not use the same mass transport in which there is no social distancing. The failure by the government to act consistently and in line with the risk-adjusted approach that it has so effectively communicated potentially de-legitimises the entire mechanism required to containing the spread of Covid-19.

The SACP strongly cautions the government against any approach that may worsen the inequalities that were entrenched in education before Covid-19 and expose learners, teachers and other workers in schools to Covid-19. A sound approach on schools must be guided by the need to protect life as the primary goal. Whether learners, teachers and other workers in schools are protected cannot be judged by looking at what is expected inside school premises only but requires a holistic view of every link in the chain of their movement from home to school and their travel back from school to home. This requires ensuring that all schools meet the norms and standards and have the capacity required to protect learners, teachers and other workers against Covid-19. The government must systematically roll back inequalities in education in the terrain of the fight against Covid-19.

The SACP is deeply concerned about the employment and working conditions of taxi drivers, who, as all workers in the economy, must be covered in terms of applicable labour law. The SACP expresses its support for the Congress of South African Trade Unions in bringing attention to the plight of taxi drivers and calling for compliance with labour law.

Inconsistent approaches to Covid-19 are of deep concern.

The private commercial banks, monopoly financial sector, has been given leeway by being exempted from competition law, while most sectors of the economy were required to shut down altogether or scale down their operations. Those that owe their mortgage bonds, vehicle finance and other loans plus interest were required by the banks to continue making repayments, while the economic activities from which their income depends were down. It is senseless to deny that this has had an impact on the affected sectors and households, as it is to fail to recognise that the banks’ responses to the exemption they were given from competition law were inadequate, in general.  

Furthermore, the banks were supported by the government and the South African Reserve Bank through the state guaranteed loan scheme. They have been administering the scheme in such as way that small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) from the historically disadvantaged background, Black, women and youth, were deprived of access. This is one of the grounds on which the Black Business Council (BBC), which represents many of the excluded Black SMMEs, called for the criteria of the state guaranteed loan scheme to be changed. 

The SACP reiterates its stance for the government to drive a process of financial sector transformation, through among others moving with urgency in establishing a state bank – as a step towards a broader state developmental financial sector.

The SACP is deeply concerned that there are many people in South Africa who deliberately place themselves and others at risk by irresponsible and non-compliant behaviour. We call on every person in the country to comply with the World Health Organisation and government regulations aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19, to protect the supreme right to life – your own, your loved ones and everyone that you are in contact with. 

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, Central Committee Member for Media & Communications, 22 July 2020