SACP Statement on local government coalitions‎, in particular the EFF and the DA

17 August 2016

As the SACP we accepted the will of the people as expressed on the ballot. We are revolutionary democrats, for we know that the most reliable democratic mandate from the ballot is an outright majority. Without it possibilities of difficulties cannot be ruled out as we already see. 

The courting of the EFF by the DA was essentially embedded in, and is ultimately tantamount to harnessing the EFF as a strategy to hand power back to the interests of minority rule based on White supremacy fronted and masked in a Black face (There is a big difference on this issue between appearance and essence). This is what the EFF has committed itself to, in contradiction to its rhetoric claiming they are fighting for the return of land to the people as a whole.

There is no doubt as the election results show, that the DA remains firmly rooted in historical constituencies that were declared Whites only under apartheid. The DA is rooted in those areas that benefited enormously from apartheid, a crime against humanity, despite consolidating support in other national minority communities based on the manufacture of anti-majoritarian fear and despite gaining a smattering of votes elsewhere.

The EFF is alleging that it is representing the aspirations of the poor, yet it has chosen to collaborate and return power back to a party of the rich and White privilege acquired under colonial and apartheid oppression. 

The conditions of the people in Alexandra and other poor communities are a direct result of the system of racist oppression and capitalist exploitation advocated by the DA.

In the name of national interests and setting aside ideological differences, the EFF has indeed chosen not to be neutral, not to be on the side of advancing revolutionary social emancipation, but to be on the side of the DA, a party of monopoly capital, the most corrupt, ruthless and inhuman system that continues to reproduce class inequality, unemployment and poverty, a party that advocates for the protection of labour brokers, outsourcing, privatisation, casualisation and making it easy to fire workers from work. This is a programme of monopoly capital!

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, National Spokesperson, SACP, 17 August 2016