The opinion article by Cde Jeremy Cronin, a renowned analyst and poet is openly reactionary, clothed in quasi-Marxist rhetoric, with potential to make a sorry and sad reflection of the true character of the South African Communist Party's ideological steadfastness. What is worrying though is that Cde Cronin's anti development and counter progress sentiments are projected as views of South African Communist Party (see article).
It is highly unlikely that Cde Cronin represents the views and true character of the Communist Party because the Communist Party we know is one that was able to mould Nelson Mandela from an anti-communist radical into a true revolutionary who did not only embrace the Freedom Charter, but was willing to take up arms to defend it.
Communist Party activists played an important role in the ideological, political and organisational configuration of the ANC Youth League in the early 1940s and early 1950s, despite the hostility they encountered from the Youth Leaguers, particularly Nelson Mandela. When Nelson Mandela rebuked the Communist Party and physically disrupted its meetings, it was the longest serving General Secretary of the Communist Party, Moses Kotane who paid particular attention to the ready to fight anti-communist militant (Mandela) and transformed him into fighting nationalist revolutionary against the white bourgeoisie and the British imperialists.
William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Joe Matthews and many of our predecessors in the Youth League matured within the revolutionary national liberation movement to accept the ideological guidance from the Communist Party. Practical joint programmes of what is now understood to be the alliance between the ANC and the Communist Party were pioneered by the founding generation of the ANC YL amidst condemnation by the Senior and older leadership of the ANC.
These realities about the Communist Party and many others make us to earnestly believe that Jeremy Cronin could not be writing about the ANC YL's call for the Nationalisation of Mines in the manner he did if he truly represents the Communist Party. But because Jeremy Cronin chose to write about the Nationalisation of Mines in response to the ANC YL, we are left with no choice but to respond and expose the reactionary undertones that characterise his input.
It is very sad that Jeremy Cronin decided to isolate me from the ANC YL 23rd National Congress resolution that "the State should be custodian of the people in its ownership, extraction, production and trade of mineral wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industries and banks". We thought that it is only rightwing Newspapers and their attendant analysts who recurrently isolate me from the organisation, and indeed amazed that Jeremy Cronin has joined the band.
Socialisation vs. Nationalisation
Cde Jeremy Cronin takes issue with the fact that the ANC YL has called for Nationalisation of Mines, instead of socialisation. He says "this is why the SACP also prefers in general to refer to "socialisation" rather than "nationalisation". This is quite odd because in the same opinion article, Cde Cronin re-asserts the Communist Party's call for the Nationalisation of SASOL.
The SACP 12th National Congress resolved amongst other things, "to campaign for and ensure the re-nationalization of companies in strategic sectors such SASOL and Mittal Steel with an ultimate aim of nationalizing and socializing the commanding heights of the economy in line with the vision of the Freedom Charter". It appears from this resolution and many others that contrary to what Cde Jeremy says, the SOUTH AFRICAN Communist Party has never preferred socialisation as opposed to nationalisation, and neither did it narrowly prefer nationalisation as opposed to socialisation.
In August 2009, the ANC YL released a Nationalisation of Mines conceptual framework (see here) on what our understanding of Nationalisation is, so as to avoid the confusion and misinterpretations that seem to dominate Cronin's input. In the conceptual framework, we amongst other things said, "Nationalisation is not a panacea for South Africa's developmental challenges, but it should in the manner we are proposing it, entail democratising the commanding heights of the economy, to ensure they are not just legally owned by the state, but that they are thoroughly democratised and controlled by the people".
What is vital and important in the immediate is that Nationalisation of Mines should happen and the question, methods and approach of socialisation is directly consequent of the decision to Nationalise. Comrade Jeremy does not appreciate such, he instead philosophises the entire question so that he can reach reactionary conclusions.
In the ANC, "transfer of mineral wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industries and banks to the ownership of the people as a whole" was correctly understood as nationalisation if the government that nationalises can justly claim authority and based on the will of the people.
In the aftermath of the ANC's adoption of the Freedom Charter, the leadership of the ANC recurrently affirmed "transfer of ownership to the people as a whole" as amounting to a legitimate government's control and ownership of the commanding heights of the economy. Various evidence points to the fact that ownership by the people as a whole was construed to be meaning Nationalisation. Cde Jeremy Cronin is the one speaking English, not politics, and does not even provide a conceptual foundation of what is meant by socialisation.
Responding to a critique of the Freedom Charter by a Jordan K. Ngubane, who was against the economic clause of the Freedom Charter, President Albert Luthuli said in June 1956 that, "In modern society, even amongst the so-called capitalistic countries, nationalisation of certain industries and commercial undertakings has become an accepted and established fact. Only the uninitiated and ignorant would suggest that the Union of South Africa is going to Moscow because its Railways, Broadcasting and Post Office services are nationalised".
President Luthuli further illustrated that nationalisation as called for in South Africa and in the Freedom Charter did not amount to the Moscow style command economy, and this point is categorically stated in the July 2009 ANC YL's conceptual basis on nationalisation.
Again in 1956, a leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela said, "It is true that in demanding the nationalisation of the banks, the gold mines and the land the Charter strikes a fatal blow at the financial and gold-mining monopolies and farming interests that have for centuries plundered the country and condemned its people to servitude. But such a step is absolutely imperative and necessary because the realisation of the Charter is inconceivable, in fact impossible, unless and until these monopolies are first smashed up and the national wealth of the country turned over to the people". There is absolutely no confusion on the understanding the leadership of the ANC had on the Freedom Charter, and the contemporary interpretations should not confuse us.
Former ANC President Oliver Tambo said in the 1969 political report to the National Consultative Conference in Morogoro that, "At the moment there are vast monopolies whose existence affects the livelihood of large numbers of our people and whose ownership is in the hands of Europeans only. It is necessary for monopolies which vitally affect the social well-being of our people such as the mines, the sugar and wine industry to be transferred to public ownership so that they can be used to uplift the life of all the people".
In his first public address after release from prison, former President Nelson Mandela said, "nationalisation of the mines, banks and monopoly industry is the policy of the ANC and a change or modification of our view in this regard is inconceivable". Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela played critical role in the consultation for the Freedom Charter and adoption by the ANC, and they could not be mistaken.
Beneficiation of Minerals
Again, Comrade Jeremy deliberately provides incomplete information about the Minerals that are beneficiated in South Africa, clearly with the hope that we will not have information to disapprove him. Indeed COAL is used for electricity generation; SASOL uses certain Minerals to produce oil and the Aluminium Smelters smelt Aluminium. The Mineral Wealth in South Africa that is not beneficiated locally far exceeds the ones that are beneficiated in ESKOM, SASOL and the Aluminium Smelters.
South Africa is home to vital minerals reserves in the world, and this includes Platinum Group Metals (70%), Gold (40%), Manganese (70%), Chromium (70%) and 54 other minerals. What exactly happens to these Minerals is not known, yet Comrade Jeremy knowingly avoids this question because his main interest is centred on protecting and defending the existent property relations. The only thing we can do, as he suggests, is to transform the pattern of capital accumulation, not change it. We will never say that Comrade Jeremy is reformist because the Youth League will be considered as and labelled BEE funded anti-communist, only obsessed with shiny objects.
We said before that, "Our call for nationalisation is based on the Freedom Charter, but also on the fact that such will enhance and harness the State's capacity to create jobs and open economic opportunities for majority of our people. The State control, ownership and expansion of our mineral processing and beneficiation will play a critical role in labour-absorption of many other workers into the South African economy. Buttressed by a comprehensive social security strategy and industrial policy, South Africa needs high labour-intensive programmes to decisively deal with the unemployment and poverty challenges".
This call in Comrade Jeremy's books is reduced to the ANC YL's obsession with bling to the extent that we can never think anything developmental, but bling. It is sad that previously, those who look like us were considered intellectually inferior by the white supremacists, and today Comrade Jeremy reflects the same sentiment, even before he interacts with the views of the ANC YL.
The ANC's 52nd National Conference resolutions re-affirm that "the use of natural resources of which the state is the custodian on behalf of the people, including our minerals, water, marine resources in a manner that promotes the sustainability and development of local communities and also realises the economic and social needs of the whole nation".
This requires resolute leadership and decisive intervention into South Africa strategic economic sectors. There are lots of industrial beneficiation programmes South Africa can initiate and/or cause to happen despite jewellery. We are very aware that value can be added to Minerals not through jewellery only, but through various labour absorptive and developmental programmes.
The ANC YL said in August 2009 that "One of South Africa's greatest challenges is its high levels of unemployment. Added to the low skills reality, the South African economy is not sufficiently labour-absorptive to the extent that even if the entire workforce would be skilled, the economy would not absolve all workers into decent employment. So the creation of various labour absorptive job opportunities is vital to deal with the unemployment and poverty challenge. Mining as a critical component of the South African economy should necessarily be used to expand and industrialise the South African economy in a more developmental, instead of parasitic mechanism pursued by the current owners of Mining activities in South Africa".
Comrade Jeremy did not read this, and instead suspects that myself as President of the Youth League "and others are missing this bigger systemic picture because when they speak of mineral beneficiation they are thinking of bling...sorry, jewellery". Can it be possible that we dedicating our struggle against prejudices elsewhere whilst they exist within the organisation?
Black people and particularly Africans in Mining do not own anything above 10% of the Minerals extraction, production and trade in South Africa. Even those who think they own, do so on behalf of white owned and controlled Banks. It is an open secret that majority of shareholder capitalists in Mining are heavily indebted, and why is it that the main concern for Comrade Jeremy is the Youth League's imagined efforts to save blacks and Africans in the economy through Nationalisation.
Cde Jeremy's silence on the wealth that will be transferred from the white minority to the black and particularly African majority is very loud. It appears that the only concern Comrade Jeremy has is that these black indebted shareholder capitalists will be saved by the call for Nationalisation and nothing else. The Nationalisation that should happen should never be a blindly driven programme, but extremely cautious as it might impact on the government fiscus and disable the ANC government's capacity to build better lives for all.
If Indeed Gold Mining will cause more cost instead of benefit South Africa, then we will not concentrate our energies on Gold. Platinum, chrome, manganese, diamond, coal, and most of the other 54 minerals continue to be strategic minerals and their extraction, production and trade should benefit the people as a whole.
Expropriation?
The question of expropriation does not arise and squarely falls within the conceptual framework we previously raised, that "depending of the merits of the each case based on "balance of evidence", nationalisation may involve expropriation with or without compensation". This is vital and should be decided on a case by case basis. Part of the models we are considering as an approach to Nationalisation of Mines is the Botswana model where De Beers is a 50% partnership with the Botswana government and still pays royalties and tax.
None of the Mining Licence Holders in South Africa currently have more than 30 years licence, and a substantial part of the country's platinum and other vital minerals is not mined, entailing that if the partnership model is the one endorsed by the ANC National General Council in September 2010, the people of South Africa will be benefiting from as soon as new partnerships are entered into.
Conclusion
The Constitutional Court will not be involved in all these because our call for Nationalisation and its ultimate realisation will never violate the Constitution. We have sufficient political power and the question is whether we have the capacity, courage and will to use political power for the benefit of the people as a whole. Whilst important for the life of the organisation, debates should not seek to undermine the intellectual capacity of other comrades, but should be used as contribution to the development of our movement.
Ideologues of the movement should never be tempted to fall into an arrogant trap and believe that they are the only ones capable of expressing views, and completely not care about engaging with (or at least read) official perspective positions of the component organisations of the National Liberation Movement.
The ANC YL will interact with all discussion documents of the movement, including the SACP Special National Congress documents, but will never agree to be co-opted to reformist programmes and projects of anyone. South Africa in 2009, more than in other period in its history, is strategically in a space and period to Nationalise Mines.
The Communist Party should in this instance always seek to enrich the debate and discussion on the Nationalisation of Mines and avoid joining reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces who believe the status quo in terms of property relations is acceptable. No amount of bickering from both Right and fake-Left forces will diminish our efforts to ensure that Mines and other strategic sectors of the South African economy are nationalised. We also do not need the permission of white political messiahs to think.
Statement issued by the President of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, November 19 2009
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