Red Alert: Let the hypocrisy be exposed: Irvin Jim, a person economical with the truth

Late last Friday 29 August 2014 a statement was issued and distributed with the subject line "Statement by NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim on Nkandla and Public Protector".

Where has worker control gone?

Under the principle, a trade union is an organisation of workers, its statements are not statements of an individual; on the contrary, they statements of the union on behalf of its individual members and officials, elected and appointed. The subject line of Mr Jim's statement is indicative of either an individual or his leadership clique elevating themselves above the organisation. This is characteristic of liberal elitism.

Mr Jim alleges that there is "rot, corruption and loss of revolutionary morality". It is obvious that he is directing this allegation at the ANC and SACP as part of his campaign to form a new party. As our democratic revolutionary movement embarks on the second radical phase of our transition from oppression more and more strange formations are being created with the declared objective of bringing down the ANC and its Alliance, including COSATU. Mr Jim behaves like a predator that is trying to feed itself from the flesh of our Alliance formations ANC, SACP and COSATU, in order to survive. He will fail; the Alliance will prevail.

Mr Jim boldly asserts that the article by SACP's 2nd Deputy General Secretary in the recent Umsebenzi Online (28 August 2014) is "claptrap". He goes on to say it "reinforces the idea, in the public domain, that the PP (more than White Monopoly Capital) has become enemy number one in blind defence and loyalty to the misconduct of the RSA President". What real gibberish by Irvin Jim.

The many sections of apartheid conservatives, liberal and right-wing opportunists, infantile left-wing populists and demagogues who agree with his hogwash not only in the "public domain" but also in private against the ANC and its Alliance partners, and against the President, do not all agree that white monopoly capital is enemy number one. In fact, many in these categories (and the various media platforms that give him space) who agree with him do so in defence of white monopoly capital. This is why they hate our democratic revolutionary movement with passion.

Mr Jim has obviously realigned. He is actively pursuing the agenda of those who the idea that our liberation movement as led by the ANC is the number one enemy of the people. This agenda has failed on May 7th General Election: based on the advances made under our movement an overwhelming majority of our people voted for the ANC, but, despite this clear victory, bogus statistics were invented, and using NUMSA as his new party political platform in the making Jim congratulated the EFF.

In sharp contrast to his deliberate distortions about our liberation Alliance and the enemy, for the SACP private monopoly capital, regardless of its personified bearers' skin colour, is the strategic opponent and therefore the fundamental enemy of the struggle for socialism and the people as a whole. In its statement presented by the 2nd Deputy General Secretary Comrade Solly Mapaila at the 19th Anniversary Commemoration of the death of Comrade Joe Slovo (6 January 2014; also See Umsebenzi Online Vol. 13, No. 1, 9 January 2014) not only has the Party correctly observed the anti-Alliance tendency that seeks to project our liberation movement as the enemy number one of the people but also clarified the question of the enemy in simple terms:

"Some inside our own formations have taken the bait. They have decided to turn a programme against the enemy into a weapon against our own movement. 
Our movement is not the enemy of the workers. Our democratic developmental state that we seek to build is not the enemy of workers. The enemy of workers is the big private capital that exploits them, takes their labour and pays them peanut wages."

Let us return back to Mr Jim's primary allegation: "rot, corruption and loss of revolutionary morality". His very first reason to back it is that: "Average household size is 3.4, but is roughly 5 for African households". Who is responsible for this, and is any average household size a problem of rot, corruption and loss of revolutionary morality by the ANC and SACP as Jim claims? Our revolution has never sought to expropriate the right of persons to determine their family size, organisation, and to follow their culture. On the contrary, we have fought for these and other human rights as captured in the Bill of Rights in our Constitution.

Also, it is common cause that since ascending to government in 1994 the ANC-led government built over 3.3 million houses; transferred over 500 000 rental houses to their occupants; delivered over 30 000 rental housing units to low and moderate households; and extended electricity to 7 million more households and potable water to 92% of South Africans compared to 60% in 1994. Is there any other country in the world that has done this within the short period of time in which our revolution has done it, noting the many constraints we have experienced in the economic and revenue base? Is there any government that takes people out of shacks and gives them new houses, totally for free with the addition of subsidised water and electricity as our revolution has done since 1994? Does Jim recognise this massive advance achieved only in the first 20 years of our transition from oppression? If he does, which is not the case in his statement, why does he not acknowledge these achievements and in whose interests does he do this or belittle them and wants to bring down the ANC and the Alliance?

Jim asks the hysterical question: "Why is there no one in the ANC/SACP/COSATU alliance willing to openly condemn not just the looting and corruption by government officials and those corruptly involved in the so called 'security upgrades'..."? On the contrary, FACT:

"As the Communist Party we agree that the money spent is too much. We condemn the variation, and the main thing we are condemning is the corruption which led to too much money being spent there", said SACP Statement delivered by 2nd Deputy General Secretary Comrade Solly Mapaila at the 19th Anniversary Commemoration of the passing of Comrade Joe Slovo.

In its response to the release of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team's investigative report the Party said:

"...the SACP has consistently expressed concern about the seemingly inflated prices not only at the construction at Nkandla, but also in ministers' and other government properties. We therefore welcome the findings confirming that indeed there was inflation of prices and services and that action will be taken against the culprits".

But why is there such as diversity of elements who, ignoring all other problems and solutions in South Africa, concentrate on the manufacture of lies and half-truths about Nkandla? As the Party statement presented by Comrade Solly Mapaila said, there is an idea:

"that the more lies are repeated they end up being believed, instead of the truth. That's what a German Nazi called Joseph Goebbels believed. He was a falsehood propagandist, a great liar, who was the right hand man of Adolf Hitler... it is now abundantly clear that interest is given to giving space to and therefore telling not only lies but big lies. This is perhaps driven by some belief, wrong in the extreme, that the bigger the lies promoted, the better they stand a chance to be believed".

We would hate to call Mr Jim a liar. But without doubt, in addition to distortions, he is being economical with the truth.

In his statement, Mr Jim makes use of NUMSA to promote an EFF programme and to attack the ANC-SACP-COSATU Alliance. He further commits the union to mobilise for the success of that programme. Like the EFF, Jim ignores the fact that the Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela has submitted her investigative report on the Nkandla matter to Parliament, and that Parliament, to which the Public Protector is accountable, is duly processing the report in terms of the mandate vested upon it by the Constitution.

It did not come as a surprise that immediately after Mr Jim's statement, Zwelinzima Vavi came out in what was apparently co-ordinated support. Vavi is widely reported in the media as Jim's closest collaborator. We all know that on matters affecting Vavi, Jim has correctly insisted that all due process must be followed to the letter and be exhausted. It seems that in his eyes, President Zuma should not be treated with the same respect, even in matters, which, according to the Public Protector, he was not involved.

Let the hypocrisy be exposed. Has Mr Jim called for his commander-in-chief Julius Malema to pay back the money and be prosecuted?

Just imagine how much in illicit income did Malema misappropriate and squander for him to owe the Receiver of Revenue R16 million in tax payers' money?

In her investigative report titled 'On the Point of Tenders', this is what the Public Protector had to say with respect to what is actually a "rot, corruption and loss of revolutionary morality" exhibited by Mr Jim's commander-in-chief through his Ratanang Family Trust, his 50% stake in Guilder Investment and his connection with Gwangwa Family Trust:

"The evidence of Mr Gwangwa in respect of how and by whom it was decided that On-Point should pay (monthly) dividends to the Ratanang Family Trust and make payments to the Gwangwa Family Trust (via Guilder Investments) furthermore supported the allegation that the Trusts were probably used as vehicles for the transfer of funds obtained through an unlawful process.

As the main source of income of On-Point during this period was the payments made to it by the Department in terms of the agreement and On-Point owed its existence as a profit making establishment that could declare regular dividends thereto, the Ratanang Family Trust as one of two shareholders of Guilder Investments (as the holding company), accordingly benefitted improperly from the unlawful, fraudulent and corrupt conduct of On-Point and maladministration of the Department.

Notice how the Public Protector had to highlight the last paragraph in bold!

Comrade Bonakele Majuba is SACP Mpumalanga Provincial Secretary

This article first appeared in Umsebenzi Online, the online journal of the SACP.

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