SACP needs to influence policy
The 52nd ANC national conference that took place in 2007 in Polokwane reignited a long-overdue national dialogue about the progressive change within the South African political landscape.
This debate was spearheaded by “left-inclined forces” who were willing to go to any length to gallantly overturn the socio-economic contradictions that emanated from the 1996 class project of Thabo Mbeki.
This, through the economic model of Gear, further engraved the legacy of a colonial apartheid state.
This was characterised by the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality under the pretext of a newly liberated state with sights of RDP houses that tumbled down quicker than the matchbox houses of the Verwoerd era.
At the forefront of altering the status quo were staunch communists such as Blade Nzimande, of the SACP, and then secretary-general of Cosatu Zwelinzima Vavi.
The 2,329 hands that propelled Jacob Zuma to the throne of the ANC ahead of Mbeki had hopes of repositioning the policy of the country by infusing the ideals of the national democratic revolution (NDR) in a manner that would mirror the “Lula Moment” of Brazil, a period when the Luiz Inacio da Silva was president of Brazil (20032011).
The presidency of Lula (as he is affectionately known) was characterised by programmes that took 40 million Brazilians out of absolute poverty and created 15 million jobs, anchored by accountability in public institutions and real relationships between labour and civil society and business.
The SA “Lula Moment” was not to be seen. The only thing that was in sight was the strife of South Africans that further deepened when the tune of neo-liberal policies continued to echo in the SA political economy.
The neo-liberal economic policies that the SACP alongside its alliance partner, Cosatu, fought in the ANC Polokwane conference are still the order of the day.
With the debate around the privatisation of key state assets such as SAA and the rampantly increasing petrol prices as the backdrop to an increase in VAT, questions need be raised on the influence the SACP has on the alliance.
This is especially with regard to the policy formulation process of the ANC, besides merely bringing forward names as that of Nzimande, Buti Manamela and their fellow cadres to form part of the executive arm of government.
This is something which has hinged more on co-option to the decorum of the ANC than effectively lobbying it to take a pro-left stance that is directed by the NDR.
The class content of the NDR, of which both the ANC and the SACP are meant to be custodians, has remained the locomotive of the liberation struggle against colonial apartheid.
It has remained relevant even beyond the critically contested 1994 “democratic breakthrough”.
One of the reasons it has remained relevant is because its theoretical underpinnings are rooted in a primary force that is pro-poor and working class, the same principles that were supposed to be explicitly championed by the SACP and influenced the ANC by providing checks and balances in every key decisions that it takes.
The historical account of the formation of the concept of the NDR with international communism and its later adoption by the SACP suggests that it’s aligned on the left side of the ideological spectrum.
But one of the fundamental questions that need to be asked by the alliance is the reality of this left-leaning NDR being led by the ANC which is constituted by a “broad church” which does not explicitly subscribe to communism. As much as it is easy to blame apartheid and the government of Zuma for the current problems facing the country, the reconfiguration of the alliance also needs to be mentioned among the problems that have derailed progress in the country.
The SACP and Cosatu have been swallowed by the ruling party to an extent that they are paralysed in their task to compliment and contradict the ANC when it matters.
The SACP and Cosatu also need to raise the questions of being led in the NDR by the ANC that has failed to restructure the economic policies of the country to make it inclusive of everyone.