NUMSA NATIONAL OFFICE BEARERS' STATEMENT ON THE SACP AUGIMENTED CENTRAL COMMITTEE STATEMENT OF 1ST DECEMBER 2013, Numsa Eastern Cape Regional Office, Newton Park, Port Elizabeth, December 3 2013
"........there is a small, but lingering, phenomenon in the trade union movement that of wanting to deliberately cause strain and divide the labour movement from the SACP and the ANC. We must intensify ideological work to expose and defeat this phenomenon within the ranks of COSATU and the progressive trade union movement." (SACP 13th Congress Political Report, 2012)
A. NUMSA and the SACP
It has now become absolutely necessary to publicly repeat the essential historic relationship that has, hitherto, traditionally existed between the SACP and NUMSA.
Many NUMSA members just like many activists in the formations of the South African Liberation Movement, have been greatly influenced by, and received their revolutionary political education from, the teachings of the South African Communist Party.
Many NUMSA members have always regarded the SACP as the vanguard party of the working class, in the struggle for socialism.
Although we have no actual figures, we know that across the country, quite a reasonable number of NUMSA members are also members of the SACP.
We have, as NUMSA, in many of our Congresses, encouraged our members to join the SACP. We make no apologies to anyone for this.
Officially, NUMSA has in several of its National Congresses committed itself to the South African Communist Party. We actually contribute financially to the viability of the SACP.
NUMSA, as a Marxist-Leninist inspired trade union, has no illusions what is it historic role and political responsibilities are, to the struggle of the working class for socialism. Stemming from this awareness, NUMSA has openly declared that the SACP is our political insurance, and our party of Socialism. We have always regarded the Party as our vanguard.
The SACP we have come to know, even after 1994 up to 2007, has been with us, the Black and South African working class in our trenches and struggles against the brutalities of the South African white and imperialist dominated capitalism, and its surrogates in the Liberation Movement.
Blade Nzimande himself rose to power in the SACP on the back of our collective struggles and criticisms of neoliberal GEAR and what came to be known as the "1996 Class Project", in post 1994 South Africa.
In NUMSA we celebrate SACP revolutionary activists, heroes and heroines, past and present. Which is why, for example, we love Chris Hani.
In all our statements on the SACP, we want to place it on record, we have never sought to insult members of the SACP, past and present. Our perspective duly arrived at within Numsa and Cosatu has been to critique positions of the Party with which we disagree.
It is precisely because NUMSA is a Marxist-Leninist inspired red industrial trade union, and because it has come to regard, over the years, the SACP as a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary formation, and because NUMSA holds in extreme high regard the historic contributions of the SACP to the struggle against apartheid in this country, which no one can erase, that NUMSA has unashamedly freely utilised and benefited from the revolutionary historic teachings of the SACP on the South African socio-economic formation.
On the South African socio-economic formation, NUMSA has formally benefited from the incisive and brilliant SACP characterisation of the South African capitalist formation when it said, in its Programme called "Path to Power", adopted at its 7th Congress, in 1989:
"The South African capitalist state did not emerge as a result of an internal popular anti-feudal revolution. It was imposed from above and from without.
From its birth through to the present, South African capitalism has depended heavily on the imperialist centres. Capital from Europe financed the opening of the mines.
It was the colonial state that provided the resources to build the basic infrastructure - railways, roads, harbours, posts and telegraphs.
It was an imperial army of occupation that created the conditions for political unification. And it was within a colonial setting that the emerging South African capitalist class entrenched and extended the racially exclusive system to increase its opportunities for profit.
The racial division of labour, the battery of racist laws and political exclusiveness guaranteed this. From these origins a pattern of domination, which arose in the period of external colonialism, was carried over into the newly-formed Union of South Africa. From its origins to the present, this form of domination has been maintained under changing conditions and by varying mechanisms.
In all essential respects, however, the colonial status of the black majority has remained in place. Therefore we characterise our society as colonialism of a special type."
We are not aware of any formal, rigorous theoretical revision of this position, from the SACP.
In fact, including in the SACP Central Committee Statement of the 1st of December 2013 itself, the SACP acknowledges that even post 1994, what it now strangely calls "monopoly capital" (no more reference to white monopoly capital) has strengthened its hold on South Africa, and internationalised.
We now know in 2013 that out of the poorest 25 million South Africans, 24 million are Africans precisely because of their unchanged colonial status after 1994!
We now know that in 2008, the top 20% or roughly 10 million South Africans received 75% of total national income.
The poorest 50% of the South African population or 25 million South Africans received a meagre 8% of the national income. Of course 24 million of these poorest South Africans are African - confirming their colonial status in post 1994 democratic South Africa.
We in NUMSA are not surprised at this ugly South African reality. As we now know, the 1994 ANC/SACP negotiated settlement did not change this in all essential respects, however, the colonial status of the black majority, which has simply remained in place to date. Nor did it destroy the economic and political basis of the power of white monopoly and imperialist capital in South Africa.
Reducing the black majority to social grant recipients does not eradicate their colonial status. It simply confirms this ugly fact, post 1994.
B. The SACP of Blade Nzimande and NUMSA
NUMSA currently cannot deny that it has fundamental philosophical, ideological and political problems with the SACP under Blade Nzimande.
Post 2009, it did not take us long to realise that it was a grave mistake to bury so many SACP leaders into the nationalist government of the ANC.
More importantly, NUMSA quickly realized that locking the general secretary of the SACP and his deputy in government simply made the SACP impotent. This denied the SACP of its independent leadership, and character, as a socialist vanguard of the working class.
NUMSA has raised this fact inside and outside Cosatu. This has greatly angered Blade and his friends in the SACP. It has made the current NUMSA leadership very unpopular with Blade's SACP leadership. We now recall the debate in the Cosatu CEC on the need for the general secretary of the SACP to occupy this position on a fulltime basis. Our recollection was that pioneers of this call in the debate were the NUM General Secretary, NEHAWU General Secretary and the SADTU President. When Comrade Zwelinzima Vavi had to articulate this position of the CEC, Blade went on a mad verbal attack on the person of Comrade Zwelinzima Vavi.
Blade has vowed in the 13th SACP Congress last year, to isolate, expose and destroy the current NUMSA national leadership in general, and Irvin Jim in particular. Because they are a "lingering" irritation, post 2007!
NUMSA, from 1993, has always been aware of the dangers of the unstructured ANC led alliance, to the working class. Our resolutions clearly expound on this fact, consistently.
Today, having ridden to power on the back of criticizing SACP members and leaders in the neoliberal GEAR ANC government, Blade Nzimande's SACP has no problem with the NDP - a clear continuation of GEAR by not so cleverly concealed means. In fact the very Blade ensure that Ministers in Thabo Mbeki's Cabinet are purged from the SACP Central Committee understandably so because these fellows championed privatization and anti-working class policies which came to be known as the "1996 Class Project". SACP members, who are in Cabinet, are today happy to champion e-tolling (privatization) of public roads, Gautrain, etc.
In fact, Blade Nzimande, on national television, is on record publicly denying that the Zuma government is pursuing neoliberalism, because he, as an SACP leader, he is part of this government and must therefore deny the most obvious fact.
C. The SACP strategy of isolating, exposing and destroying us
Precisely because NUMSA has not been afraid to publicly complain that the SACP of Blade Nzimande has fast lost its vanguard role of the working class since 2009, Blade in his Political Report to the 2012 13th SACP Congress said the following, about NUMSA:
"........there is a small, but lingering, phenomenon in the trade union movement that of wanting to deliberately cause strain and divide the labour movement from the SACP and the ANC. We must intensify ideological work to expose and defeat this phenomenon within the ranks of COSATU and the progressive trade union movement."
In the 1st December SACP Central Committee Statement, the SACP says, about NUMSA:
"For a long while now the SACP has endured an endless string of personalised insults and lies from these quarters. We have patiently endeavoured to engage with the NUMSA general secretary and his clique in a constructive if robust ideological debate. However sceptical we might have been, we decided to take him at his word that he was seeking to advance an anti-capitalist, left-wing perspective and line of action. We have even opened up the columns of our own publications for him to vent against us. Irvin Jim has consistently abused all of these sincere endeavours. It is now glaringly obvious that he and his clique have another agenda. It is not an agenda of building working class unity. It is not an agenda of respecting left-wing diversity. It is an agenda informed by unbridled personal ambition and personal wealth accumulation."
At last, the SACP of Blade Nzimande unleashed its blades (no pun intended) against Comrade Irvin Jim, the Numsa General Secretary.
In total ignorance of the internal democratic workings and processes of NUMSA, Blade and his friends in the leadership of the SACP completely ignore the fact that Irvin Jim speaks on behalf of the more than 320 000 members of NUMSA and its constitutional structures, and carries their mandate, whenever he speaks about the SACP.
But no, just like the colonial masters, Jim is the "ring leader" in NUMSA; Jim is a leader of a "clique" in NUMSA whose agenda is informed by unbridled personal ambition and personal wealth accumulation.
In our wildest dreams, we would never have thought that the SACP of Moses Kotane, of Joe Slovo, of Chris Hani, would ever have resorted to the use of dangerous isolationist and factionalist strategies of individual revolutionary activists that inevitably led to their being disappeared or assassinated, in our recent past!
D. The SACP's Shallow Assessment of the past 20 Years
In its Statement, the SACP of Blade Nzimande says the following, about our 20 years of "democracy:"
"The CC agreed that enormous gains have been notched up over the past two decades, particularly in terms of significantly lifting the floor of poverty through, amongst other things, the roll-out of social grants to 16 million South Africans (compared to 2,4million in 1994). Notwithstanding these and many other important advances, the balance of class forces has shifted unfavourably for the working class and poor, with monopoly capital being the principal beneficiary of our hard-won democratic breakthrough.
Monopoly capital has used our democracy and the ending of apartheid-era sanctions not to invest in reconstruction and development within our country - but to disinvest. The equivalent of 20 to 25% of GDP has been disinvested out of SA since 1994, some of it illegal capital flight.
The draining of productive capital out of our country has been exacerbated by erroneous economic policies particularly in the decade after 1996 - including the dramatic relaxation of exchange controls and the permitting of dual listings of major, born-and-bred SA companies (Anglo, De Beers, SASOL, SAB, Old Mutual, etc.). The South African government now confronts these giants as if they were foreign investors that have to be wooed on their own terms. Compounding all of this is that the surplus that is being retained within SA, is overwhelmingly not being invested in productive sectors."
We at NUMSA now know that all the above are perfect outcomes of the negotiated settlement in which the ANC/SACP traded the Freedom Charter for government jobs and BEE, while Cosatu was busy working on the Reconstruction and Development Programme, which was later unceremoniously dumped in favour of GEAR.
The SACP, surely, has the theoretical and ideological capacity, and revolutionary moral rectitude, to honestly confess that the foundations of the current ugly situation in South Africa were laid in the negotiations in which white monopoly capital and imperialism triumphed as together they facilitated the acquisition of "government" by the ANC in exchange for economic sovereignty?
We repeat: the 1994 negotiated settlement neither dismantled the power of South African white monopoly capital and imperialism, nor did it change the colonial status of the black majority in South Africa.
F. The SACP's hollow anti-monopoly capitalist front and narrow BEE collaborators
We in NUMSA, in our National Executive Committee document have showed how the SACP has defended white monopoly capitalism against nationalization, on the grounds that nationalization is meant to rescue "narrow BEE capital".
We are quite amazed that today, the SACP is against the "monopoly capitalists", but says nothing about how it plans to take ownership of the means of production from the same "monopoly capitalist".
Without any intellectual pretence, the SACP liberally makes the colonial character of South African monopoly capital to disappear, just like that. It is no longer "white monopoly capitalism" that it is against; it is just "monopoly capitalism". Theoretically, this means a denial of the continued persistence of Colonialism of a Special Type in South Africa by the SACP of Blade Nzimande.
The SACP conveniently hides where, politically, the "narrow BEE collaborators" are concentrated. These "narrow BEE collaborators" fought valiantly, side by side with the SACP, against nationalization. They are in the ANC.
We now know that each mining house, monopoly industry, has an ANC surrogate in its executive, and these "narrow BEE collaborators", the compradors, are leading the ANC today, with Blade Nzimande.
For example, the current deputy president of the ANC and the chairperson are big shareholders of mining houses. Why in hell would they agree to have their wealth "nationalised"? Blade Nzimande serves with these individuals on the ANC National Executive Committee.
We find it hard not to have contempt for the "anti-monopoly capitalist front" the SACP Central Committee Statement is calling for. This is a hollow front, a "pseudo-revolutionary-sounding phrase" that not so cleverly masks the defence of "white monopoly capitalism" in post 1994 South Africa.
We are shocked at the SACP of Blade Nzimande's liberal amnesia and denial of Colonialism in South Africa today, which is implicit in the SACP CC statement, which appeals to both "black and white South Africans."
We find this cheap appeal to "white and black" South Africans abandonment of class analysis in a colonial context and lurches on to idealism and populism.
Since when are "South Africans" a unit of analysis in Marxist-Leninist theory in general and in the SACP in particular?
The SACP of Blade Nzimande says it is calling for "a radical second phase of the democratic transition that prioritises the struggle to roll back the dominance of monopoly capital and its narrow BEE comprador collaborators."
How is the SACP of Blade Nzimande proposing this will be achieved? Through the NDP, e-tolls, Employment Incentive Tax and the abandonment of the Freedom Charter?
Why must we "roll back" and not attack and destroy "the dominance of monopoly capital"? Whatever happened to clear Marxist-Leninist revolutionary working class analysis in the SACP of the South African capitalist formation?
The SACP says: "Let us build a non-racial, patriotic unity against the ravages of monopoly capital"!
Without calling for the expropriation of "white monopoly capital" in line with the Freedom Charter, this call is just empty, hollow rhetoric, period.
The "white population" as Morogoro said, will fight doggedly against the Freedom Charter in defence of its privileges, and will therefore side with "white monopoly capitalism" and imperialism. That is why even to this day, the aristocratic white working class, remains beyond the reach of COSATU and the SACP.
G. On life style audits
We whole heartedly agree on life style audits. We actually urgently need them. The SACP leaders and members can take the lead and assist all of us by doing life style audits every 6 months.
We do remember that when Zwelinzima Vavi called for lifestyle audits, Blade Nzimande said he is a populist. We are happy to note that Blade has now changed his mind and is in favour of life style audits. However, we recognise this as opportunism, from Blade Nzimande and his friends at the SACP.
Numsa nevertheless calls for lifestyle audits as well, like Cosatu. But we want it as follows:
a) All leaders of the alliance and MDM formations must be subjected to it from ANC NEC to COSAS REC's,
b) Brothers, cousins, wives and children must be investigated and results be made public, and
c) For each ANC-aligned structure (ANC, SACP, COSATU, COSATU Affiliates, Progressive Business Forum, SASCO, COSAS, SANCO, SACC), the audit must target the NEC/CC, PEC, and REC.
Such an audit would in fact help us all to understand the processes of class formation in the Liberation Movement post 1994 leadership, and to know who the "receptionists" of "white monopoly capital and imperialism" in post 1994 South Africa are.
NUMSA is quite ready to make its contributions to such a comprehensive audit, which will neither target individuals for purposes of "isolating, exposing and destroying them" but will instead provide the South African working class with vital information on the class composition of post 1994 democratic South Africa class leadership of the Liberation Movement and its organs.
We will demand that no stone be left untouched, in such audits! There must be no holy cows.
H. On the frivolous business and NUMSA Investment Company allegations
If the unfounded damaging allegations made on the mentioned individuals in the SACP Central Committee Statement were not coming from the SACP they would be quite laughable, and easy to dismiss.
We should briefly explain the following facts to expose the falsehoods and slander coming from Blade and Gang;
1. In September 2008, the Numsa NEC discovered serious fraud within the Numsa Investment Company (NIC) to the tune of owing creditors more than R200m. This almost resulted in the liquidation of the NIC.
2. In October 2008, the current Numsa National Office Bearers were elected in the 8th Numsa National Congress and were mandated by that National Congress to do everything in our power to turnaround the NIC.
3. The NIC CEO, Tony Kgobe, was dismissed and a formal case was opened with the SAPS to criminally prosecute Tony Kgobe. The matter is currently with the National Prosecution Authority (NPA)
4. The December 2008 Numsa Central Committee took a resolution to offer the NIC R25m to assist in the turnaround. The NIC has repaid Numsa save for an outstanding balance of R1,6m.
The Numsa General Secretary, Irvin Jim was deployed by the Numsa Central Committee to become Chairperson of the NIC Board and the Numsa Deputy General Secretary was deployed to Chair the Doves Board. For the record we state that in their capacities as Chairpersons of those Boards, the Numsa GS and DGS did not receive a cent in board fees nor do they own any shares anywhere. (Blade can go to the registry to try and find the names of Irvin Jim and Karl Cloete to establish whether they are "business men".
Business people of repute have since been co-opted on to the various boards of the NIC and its subsidiaries.
All Numsa constitutional structures are aware of these developments because it was properly documented and reported on in the Numsa 9th National Congress held in Durban, in June 2012. In fact Blade left the Numsa 9th National Congress with a bag (not the black bag) containing the Numsa Investment Company report prepared for the Numsa National Congress. THERE IS NOTHING TO HIDE.
Coming as a ploy to defocus NUMSA from its historic December 13 - 16 Special National Congress, these allegations have the possible potential to cause confusion and division among NUMSA members which is what Stalinist and factionalist Blade wants.
But, we the leadership of NUMSA have confidence in the metalworkers. We know they are intelligent enough to understand who the sources of these lies are, and why they are peddling these lies.
NUMSA will not be detracted from moving into its historic Special National Congress solid, united and doing the work that history has thrust upon metal workers, make no mistake about that.
For now, suffice to say that the Numsa Investment Company has a well functioning Board; it regularly files its annual reports as per the commercial laws of South Africa, is regularly audited, and Blade and his choir while at liberty to make wild speculations on anything their fancy takes them to, have no right to insult the integrity, personal worth and reputations of both NUMSA and its Investment arm, the NIC, and the individuals mentioned in the SACP Central Committee Statement.
A simple search of directors of companies will reveal who owns what business interests in South Africa. The SACP is free to conduct this search before making wild false allegations.
But, as we have said at the beginning of this statement, we respect the couple of thousands of individuals who are members of the SACP and still think and believe that the SACP is a political home for Communists. We cherish our historic connection with the SACP.
We however, leave it to individuals mentioned to seek justice as they so wish. However, should Blade Nzimande and his choir persist in their defamatory conduct towards us and the ordinary members of the SACP fail to stop this choir from this perilous conduct, by ever again issuing a statement in a similar vein, we shall certainly approach the courts and seek justice, this we promise to do.
I. On the so called "secret meeting with journalists"
Long before Cedric Gcina resigned as president of NUMSA, we had mooted an informal meeting with the South African media to try and discuss with them our internal NUMSA processes leading to the NUMSA National Special Congress. In fact we make no secret of the fact that we brief senior political editors from time to time. JZ does - why is it wrong for Numsa to do it?
At NUMSA we are well aware that the media owes us nothing, and it has its own capitalist interests. It is therefore our duty to contest for working class ideas and spaces in this media.
With Gina's resignation and some of the accusations he made against the national leadership of NUMSA, the informal media meeting clearly became even more important, as it became necessary to explain to journalists, among other things, the fact that it was ridiculous for anyone to assume that NUMSA is going to a Special National Congress because, of all funny things, Vavi is not the Deputy President of the ANC!
Our National Spokesperson sent an open letter of invitation to political editors and journalists, with clear directions to the venue of the meeting, its time and date. These are not the means by which a "secret meeting" is planned, especially with journalists! Blade operates as if we are still in the underground.
Only the SACP of Blade Nzimande can think that it is possible to have a "secret meeting" with more than 20 journalist in an informal social setting!
We will be quite happy to have any of the journalists who attended that meeting to confirm that we actually made the announcement the SACP accuses us of having made.
Again, it is sad to note how little regard the SACP of Blade Nzimande has for the internal democratic processes and worker control in NUMSA. To assume that any one individual, or clique, in NUMSA would unilaterally pass the kind of historic decisions on behalf of 320 000 members is to expose oneself as an unreconstructed Stalinist who has no knowledge of how revolutionary Marxist-Leninist inspired trade unions such as NUMSA function.
J. Appeal to our metalworkers
We end this Statement by appealing to all our members to ignore, with the contempt they deserve, all manner of distractions and obstacles, which those who are the real enemies of the South African working class, those who, post 1994, are actually working with white South African monopoly capital and imperialism to keep the black and African working class permanently chained to colonialism.
We are united, focused, and ready, for our historic Special Numsa National Congress, come what may.
Conclusion:
We must ask the following questions which Blade must answer publicly;
1. Is it true that the SACP's Investment Arm has a stake in Gautrain?
2. Can we have the truth about the black bag which is alleged to have contained R500 000? Can we ask the Hawks and the Public Protector to investigate this?
3. Did the SACP benefit in kind and financially from the sale of the eThekwini municipal busses in 2002?
4. Did the SACP receive any money from the KZN business man called Singh whose company was responsible for the collapse of the mall in Tongaat?
5. Is it true that the SACP National Chairperson paid R700 000 for Madiba painting at the recent ANC fundraising function? Was this his own money or the NUM's money? Is the SACP National Chairperson and President of the NUM a businessman?
6. Did Blade bring his brother in law into a government job?
7. Is it true that Blade's brother purchased a bakkie for the SADTU KZN Provincial Secretary? (who also happens to be the SACP KZN Regional Treasurer)
Numsa shall in due course consult with our Attorneys to consider a defamation claim against Blade and the SACP Central Committee.
United, revolutionary, and militant, Numsa shall overcome.
Irvin Jim, General Secretary
Karl Cloete, Deputy General Secretary
Mphumzi Maqungo, National Treasurer
Andrew Chirwa, (Acting) President
Statement issued by NUMSA National Office Bearers, December 3 2013
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
