[DEBATE] : SACP Freedom Day Statement

[Dominic Tweedie]

27 April 2009

SACP FREEDOM DAY STATEMENT

27 April 2009 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the celebrations of
Freedom Day in South Africa.  Fifteen years ago, South Africans had
the first opportunity to vote in the first ever democratic elections
to be held in our country. Only on Saturday, the Independent Electoral
Commission (IEC) declared the fourth democratic elections to be held
in our country free and fair and thus for the fourth time, the
people’s movement, the ANC emerged once more victorious to lead our
country and charged with the mandate to radically transform South
African society for the better!

The ANC and the rest of the alliance remains extremely humbled by the
overwhelming victory and committed to working together with our people
to do more!

We have always maintained that the liberation of South Africa will not
be worth anything if the dominant colonial character of economic
forces remains unchanged; the persisting economic dominance of white
and imperialist owned capitalist monopolies; narrow and compradorial
black economic empowerment and the increasing super-exploitation of
the black working class through outsourcing, casualisation and
slave-like conditions under which most black farm workers continue to
be subjected to. The revolution would have lost its meaning if it does
not radically change these and other socio-economic conditions still
facing the majority of our people.

We are celebrating fifteen years of our democracy in the midst of one
of the worst economic crises since the advent of capitalism. We
welcome the framework agreement reached by all social partners at
NEDLAC to tackle this crisis. We however urge government to take this
commitment more serious by ensuring that all social partners are full
part of the implementation of the framework, in line with the ANC’s
commitment that working we can do more to protect the workers and the
poor from the ravages of this crisis.

During the election campaign, we have come across many of our people
who love the ANC but angry about lack of decisive intervention to
speed delivery of basic service. We need to take radical actions to
give meaning and hope to the lives of the thousands that we have met.

We owe it to the millions of our people to use the electoral victory
to change the conditions of the farm workers who continue to suffer
extreme humiliation at the helm of the farm owners. What they are
yearning for is a decent house, running water and electrification, a
decent job and respect for their basic human rights.

Millions of our people have serious backlogs in terms of roads,
running water and proper sanitation. Most of this people have been
robbed and wronged by the barbaric conduct and behavior of capitalism.
In the North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Northern Cape, the sins of
the mining industry remain visible and a major threat to our freedom
and democracy.

Capital broadly has for the past years engaged in maneuvers to
undermine our constitution. What we have instead seen is an elite
reaction aimed at accusing the ANC and its President Cde Jacob Zuma as
the threat to the constitution. These are elite concerns and at the
most a concerted effort to protect the property clause in the
constitution and legitimize the slow pace of land reform. The biggest
threat to our constitution continues to be the denial of basic human
rights of the majority by the predatory and exploitative practices of
the capitalist system

We have the challenge in the next five years to push for quantitative
and qualitative changes to better the lives of our people and give
full meaning to our freedom. We firmly believe that the thorough
implementation of the ANC’s election manifesto is just one such
platform to create a better life for all.

For the SACP celebrating fifteen year of advances made by our
democracy also means intensifying the struggle to roll back the
barbarism of capitalism and to fundamentally transform the colonial
character of our economy.

Issued by the SACP


Contact:

Malesela Maleka

SACP Spokesperson – 082 226 1802


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