On Friday 25th July 2008 the SACP Politburo (PB) held an ordinary, scheduled meeting. The PB of the SACP takes place against the background of serious global and domestic challenges facing our country. Globally and domestically, energy and food prices are soaring, and we are now on the threshold of an almost irreversible climate change that threatens human civilisation as we know it. Once more it is poor of the world and our country that have to bear the brunt of a crisis which is not of their own making.

This PB also takes place as we celebrate the SACP's 87th anniversary during 29-31 July 2008. To this end the SACP will be holding a number of commemorative events throughout the country within the next two weeks, culminating in a national commemorative rally on 3 August 2008 to be held in Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province.  

Ditch South African governnment's neo-liberal, GEAR inspired economic policies

Here in South Africa , this crisis has been worsened by ill-advised, and imposed, economic and social policies based on neo-liberal, GEAR-related policies adopted in the mid-1990s. It is a set of policies adopted by our government, against the advice of the Alliance and other progressive forces at the time, that have elevated the profit-driven interests of the capitalist class over the interests of the overwhelming majority of our people.

The SACP PB also strongly condemns the failure of government to respond with some short-term, urgent measures to the rising cost of living of the overwhelming majority of our people. The PB strongly condemns the arrogant attitude of the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, towards COSATU's proposals, which the SACP fully subscribes to, to alleviate the plight of the overwhelming majority of our people.

It is also for the above reasons that the SACP totally rejects the half-hearted measures adopted by the Cabinet lekgotla in dealing with the dire situation faced by the overwhelming majority of the workers and poor, as these remain imprisoned within the framework of the neo-liberal GEAR policies.

For these reasons the SACP fully supports and calls for the intensification of the mass offensive by the working class against the scandalous erosion of the living standards of the poor of our country, based on an ill-informed macro-economic policy. The SACP calls upon the working class and the poor of our country to intensify the struggles against the neo-liberal policies of the Mbeki government, and calls upon the incoming ANC administration after the 2009 elections to radically change the current economic growth path.

There must be radical changes to our economic policies

There is currently an intense campaign to make it unthinkable for there to be any alteration in prevailing economic policies. The PB re-affirmed its stance that there must be change in economic policy, including the abandonment of the neo-liberal GEAR policies. The SACP rejects the notion, from whatever quarter it comes from, that we must maintain the current economic policies. Changes urgently required include a radical land and agrarian reform policies, including a radical policy to expropriate land, and an industrial policy directed aimed at transforming colonial character of our current growth path, all aimed at benefitting the overwhelming majority of our people.

Failure of government to adequately respond to the immediate socio-economic crises facing our people is a graphic reflection of the extent to which the government has become a prisoner of its neo-liberal, anti-working class, and anti poor policies, since the adoption of GEAR in 1996. The SACP calls for an interventionist, developmental state, aimed at creating an economic path to address the dire socio-economic conditions of the workers and the poor of our country.

Abuse of state organs

The SACP has been briefed about both the current content and context of what has come to be known as the NIA's ‘document X'. The SACP remains deeply concerned about continuing evidence of abuse, especially of, state security organs. We call upon all the state intelligence and security organs, to categorically state that they are not being used to fight internal ANC and Alliance battles.

Document X is of serious concern to the SACP, especially because it emerges after a long history of selective handling of abuse of state organs. This document emerges after failure by government to act on its promise against those responsible for the production of the Special Browse Mole, after we had been promised that by now culprits will have been exposed and charged.

The SACP calls upon the post 2009 government to go into depth on all the matters relating to the abuse of state organs and selective application of the ‘rule of law'. It is only such decisive action that will go a long way towards restoring the confidence of the overwhelming majority of our people in the criminal justice system.

Mobilisation in support of the President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma

The PB also re-affirmed the decisions taken by the SACP and the Alliance to support the President of the ANC in his current tribulations. The SACP calls upon all the members of the SACP and our people as a whole to embark on maximum mobilisation, both in the run up and during the appearance of the ANC President in court on 4 August 2005. The city of Pietermaritzburg must be brought to a standstill in order to highlight the violation of the rights of Cde Zuma, and the threat this poses to the rights of all South Africans as enshrined in our constitution.

The SACP remains convinced that the trial of Cde Zuma is not a criminal trial, but may as well constitute the first post-apartheid political trial, and that Cde Zuma can never have a fair trial given all what has happened over the last 7 years. Cde Zuma's trial is a further manifestation of the continued abuse of state organs to further narrow political goals.

On the way forward

The PB of the SACP is strongly of the view that the only way forward for our country is the mass mobilisation of our people to deepen a radical national democratic revolution. To this end the SACP is going to deepen both its mass and policy work in order to ensure that we focus all our attention on job creation, sustainable livelihoods and intensification of the struggle against poverty.

The SACP PB also calls upon all communists and the mass of the people of our country to support the current COSATU-led actions, including maximum support for the general strike planned for 6 August 2008.

Statement issued by the SACP July 28 2008