Delay in the appointment of Judicial Commission of Inquiry into corporate state capture perpetuates corruption 

16 May 2017

The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in Mpumalanga Province met at Emalahleni on 14 May 2017 and considered, the organisational and political reports assessing the political situation and state of the Party respectively.

The PEC decided that:

SACP Organisational Renewal

The PEC will convene district councils to prepare for the SACP National Congress to be held 10-15 July 2017 in Tshwane. The meeting will among others finalise inputs to be made at the congress in the discussion documents released by the party systematically preparing for the Congress from 2013.

Among others the papers and perspectives include the following: ‘Building democratic control of the mining sector’; ‘Going to the root’, which discusses the context, content and strategic tasks of the necessity to move our national democratic revolution on to a second, more radical, phase; ‘Now more than ever the SACP has increased responsibility in the national democratic revolution’, which discusses the relationship between the SACP and state and mass power as well as the Alliance; ‘The Ten-Ten Analysis’, which looks back ten years back and the preceding period and discusses the way forward for the next ten years; Energy and water policy for a sustainable future; Constitutional amendments.

Corporate state capture, the “premier league” and the Guptas

The irregular reappointment of Brian Molefe as Eskom CEO must be reversed. Molefe was hurryingly smuggled into Parliament by manipulative methods earlier this year. He received several salaries as an MP and no longer was an Eskom employee. He was reappointed without due processes followed.

Ben Ngubane, Eskom Board Chairperson under whose auspices at the SABC the public broadcaster was driven into governance decay must be held accountable along with the rest of the board. The decision, in addition the backdrop of the symptoms of governance decay that has found its way at Eskom, has brought the Eskom board’s fitness to hold office into question. The board must be removed.

Its display of arrogance fuels the erosion of our people’s confidence in the ANC-led government with negative consequences for our ANC-headed Alliance as a whole. The reappointment of Molefe perpetuates corruption, real or perceived, that has been ongoing at Eskom under the watch of the board.

The PEC calls for an urgent appointment of the Judicial Commission of Enquiry into the State of Capture Report as a matter of urgency, so that those who are implicated are brought to book.

The so-called premier league and the Guptas are becoming a cancer that we must collectively fight against to ensure that we renew the revolutionary movement and place the National Democratic Revolution back on track.

The irregular nuclear deal process

Thus the SACP welcomes the court decision to scrap the irregular nuclear deal process. We reject this secret deal because it is first and foremost very costly. Secondly, its lack of transparency leaves a bitter taste in the midst of widespread cancerous corruption.

Zuma must resign in the interest of our people as a whole and the ANC’s support in elections.

We therefore reiterate the national position of the SACP, that president Jacob Zuma must step down without further delay, so that we can proceed with the implementation of the vision of a united, democratic and non-racial society.

The second radical phase of our national democratic revolution

The SACP rejects what has become the defence of corruption and Gupta family interests in the name of radical economic transformation. This phrase “radical economic transformation” has been contaminated and is also being to advance factional interests and the interests of parasites. The SACP stands for a comprehensive second radical phase of our national democratic revolution including genuine radical economic transformation.

Real radical economic transformation is different from the spurious agenda by elitist groupings from the ranks of the historically oppressed coalescing with parasites to replace the oppressor in the exploitation of the masses in the name of transferring economic control in the hands of black people. Real radical economic transformation is about economic emancipation – which, in our country, cannot be realised unless the basic wealth and public resources are placed at the disposal of and serve the people as a whole, the majority of whom is the working class and poor, and are not manipulated by sections of individuals, be they black or white.   

Scrap provinces

The SACP in Mpumalanga Province will be lobbying the national congress of the SACP in July this year to resolve on scrapping provinces. Our provinces in their current form are a product of compromises and still reflect the apartheid legacy of ethnic compartmentalisation and Bantustanism.  They, and their federal connotations, are an antithesis of building one united nation under a single democratically elected national government.

Verena road

We call on the provincial government in Mpumalanga to prioritise the Verena/Grobersdal road where the tragic incident of the death of 18 people died. We believe that if enough attention was given to fixing this road such calamities could have been avoided. We reiterate our Party’s call for a reliable, safe, integrated and affordable public transport system.  

Issued by Bonakele Majuba, Provincial Secretary, SACP Mpumalanga, 16 May 2017