Statement on the changes to the National Executive
Friday, 6 August 2021
The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes the changes to the National Executive and the appointments of Deputy Ministers announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, 5 August 2021. We wish the Ministers and Deputy Ministers appointed to new responsibilities all the best. The success of each Minister, Deputy Minister, and the entire National Executive is in the best interest of our country. For this to happen, the entire Cabinet and all the Deputy Ministers should serve the people selflessly and wholeheartedly.
The SACP wishes to stress the great importance of a paradigm shift to advance, deepen, and defend a second radical phase of the national democratic revolution to give practical effect to the Freedom Charter’s ‘right and duty of all to work’, eradicate poverty, and eliminate inequality.
To that end, it is the responsibility of the Cabinet as a collective to formulate our country’s macroeconomic framework as a government-wide policy. In this regard the role of the National Treasury, as clearly stated in the Public Finance Management Act, is that of promoting the fiscal framework and co-ordinating the macroeconomic policy decided by the government in a democratic manner. The fiscal framework and macroeconomic framework must support economic and broader social transformation and development, in line with the strategic objectives of our struggle for liberation and social emancipation
In contradiction, the macroeconomic framework thus far followed in our country has failed to assist us to overcome the persisting high levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. As a result, many households are struggling to support life—they are in a crisis of social reproduction with far-reaching implications.
South Africa needs a macroeconomic framework that will eliminate the colonial features of our economy and drive industrialisation as a key tenet of national production development to create employment, eradicate poverty, and systematically eliminate inequality. The SACP will continue pushing policy change in the interest of our people, especially the overwhelming majority, the working class, employed and unemployed.
Finally, the SACP welcomes the decision to undertake critical measures to strengthen our national security services and to prevent a recurrence of the events such as the attempted counterrevolutionary insurrection of July 2021. In the same breadth, we also welcome the decision to conduct a critical review of the government’s preparedness and the shortcomings in its response.
Statement issued by the SACP, 6 August 2021
