SACP statement on Cabinet changes

27 February 2018

The South African Communist Party notes that the intervention announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, 26 February, is an important step forward. The President's restructuring of the Cabinet, as a welcome process, is in line with the call that the SACP and indeed large sections of our South African society have been making. The SACP welcomes the announcement by the President that there will be further evaluation and consultation on the structure of the Cabinet, and that once completed further changes will be unveiled and implemented at an appropriate time.

This time there was consultation within the Alliance, as opposed to the previous era of  what increasingly became authoritarian leadership and unilateral decision making that undermined the Alliance and ultimately the ANC. The SACP congratulates the Ministers and Deputy Ministers the President appointed, and thanks former Ministers and Deputy Ministers for their efforts - where these were in the interests of the people rather than private motives. The SACP reiterates its strong opposition to corporate state capture and other forms of corruption and wrongdoing. 

The Cabinet must rigorously be seen leading South Africa in dismantling corporate state capture networks, and must selflessly serve the people exceptionally. The crisis-levels of class, race and gender inequality, unemployment, poverty and social insecurity, as well as uneven development between rural and urban areas, require decisive government leadership, consistent societal mobilisation and democratic popular support to address. Organisationally, a reconfigured alliance remains crucial at all levels of government and political action.  

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, National Spokesperson, SACP, 27 February 2018