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The SACP in Mpumalanga Province convened its 13th PEC Plenary Session on Sunday, 15 February 2015 at Middelburg. The meeting was augmented with additional delegates representing districts from across the province. The Augment PEC Plenary Session assessed the state of political developments in the province, nationally and internationally. The meeting adopted the 2015 plan of action in order to advance its political program, the South African Road to Socialism (SARS).

The meeting received messages of solidarity from the People's United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO), Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS), South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO)and the Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) respectively.

Radical Second Phase of our democratic transition

The second, more radical phase of transition must result in the complete implementation of the Freedom Charter. This means deepening our democracy to reach its highest level while going to the root of social and economic transformation in terms of the vision of the Freedom Charter.

At the heart of this second, more radical phase of our transition must be fundamental changes in property relations, that is, changing the ownership and control of the means of production and both the wealth endowed by nature and produced by labour. The Augmented PEC reaffirms to this end our Party's perspective for the socialisation of the means of production and wealth. This is the only road, as declared in the Freedom Charter, to share and transfer the wealth of our country to the ownership and control of people as a whole, the majority of whom is the working class and the poor.

The biggest stumbling block facing this process of transformation is monopoly capital in various manifestations including imperialism. Capitalism will continue to delay radical economic transformation, breed corruption and deviations from the revolution, and dilute democracy. A few constituting elitist groupings will be co-opted through a variety of schemes, and as intermediaries they will stand in between the masses and established capital their own private interests and those of the established capital while.

Our struggle to achieve transformation will therefore more and more become complex as class configurations assume new compositions and influence the balance of forces. We are more to traverse this terrain. Our people's march to complete national liberation, social and economic emancipation is irreversible.   

Fight against the demon of tribalism, regionalism and "xenophobia"!

We note with contempt, the resurgence of old apartheid Bantustan demon of tribalism and regionalism rearing its ugly head in Mpumalanga, Malamulele, Eastern Cape and some parts of the country. This apartheid demon is continuously spread by former apartheid agents who failed to transform since our April 1994 Democratic Breakthrough; it is also mixed in some instances with anti-communism perpetrated by greediness and corruption.

We condemn the apartheid verkrampte behaviour displayed by Steve Hofmeyer in the Innibos cultural event held in Nelspruit by the cultural Afrikaner community but we reject any racist attack to Innibos as a cultural event of our fellow South Africans.

The SACP says workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains. "Xenophobia" is inhuman and barbaric; we are calling on our government to radically stamp down all hatred activities as these do not represent the culture and tradition of our movement's human solidarity with the peoples of the world.

Fight against Lumpen Tenderpreneurship!

Disruption of the Memorial Lecture:

The PEC reaffirms that the disruption of the Joe Slovo and Jimmy Mohlala memorial lecture was done by hooligans, masquerading as revolutionaries wearing ANC t-shirts. These hooligans were led by Lumpen-tenderpreneurs who are politically malnourished and who are the beneficiaries of corrupt patronage with backward Bantustan tribalism and regionalism. They thinks that can physically ban the Communist Party of 94 years.

Former apartheid, anti-communist-corrupt agents masterminded that barbaric attack on innocent unarmed revolutionaries, armed only with the tools of analysis and guide to action which is Marxism-Leninism, honouring our giant martyrs in the South African revolution.

We shall never be intimidated by corrupt elements and lumpens hiding behind the banner of our glorious revolutionary movement. We shall continue to roll out our programmes without any fear or favour and everywhere we chose. We will invite any speaker from the congress movement whom we deem fit for the purpose. We have full confidence of our PEC leadership collective in Mpumalanga and also our Central Committee and no one will ever threaten us in any way.

Do not ignore the spy allegations

We are calling upon the national leadership of our country not to ignore the spy allegations in our province. Those serious allegations must be investigated. We reiterate our call to our President to ensure that these allegations are investigated.

We are also calling on the National Commissioner to speedily arrest perpetrators of political killings in our province. This in order to make Mpumalanga a safe place to live in like the rest of South Africa. We appreciate her commitment to do so following the meeting we had with her. We will continue and intensify our campaign in this regard.

Unity of the Alliance is Sacrosanct!

We soldier on in strengthening and defending the ANC. We reaffirm that the ANC remains the leader of our revolutionary Alliance which was formed in the trenches of struggle. We are committed in building a strong alliance with the ANC to advance the struggle of the people of Mpumalanga. To strengthen the alliance, we will build a strong and campaigning SACP and developing it as the vanguard of the working class, in order to achieve socialism for the future.

Moloto Corridor: Introduce an Integrated Transport System!

We are concerned by the delaying tactics affecting the upgrade of Moloto Road as announced by the minister of Transport in Kwaggafontein in 2014 and further deal with the contract of PUTCO that has a monopoly of operating in that area. We call for the establishment of process for rapid train in the Moloto corridor.

Our government must fight against monopoly capital in all sectors. We call for an Integrated Transport System across the province.

On the Swaziland Struggle

The royal family has entrenched a deep culture of cancerous corruption and greed in Swazi society, with state institutions permanently embedded in pervasive corruption that eats away the social fibre of the Swazi society.

MTN, which has a monopoly of telecommunication business in Swaziland, is reportedly paying dividends directly to the king who enjoys a lavish lifestyle, while the masses remain trapped in the shackles of poverty. The struggle to a democratic breakthrough must be intensified within the country itself and outside. We will intensify the struggle for the release of Comrade Amos Mbendzi and Mario Masuku and all other political prisoners.

Cuba-United States relations:

The PEC is thrilled by the release of the remaining three of the Cuban Five and the admission by the U.S. President Barak Obama that its foreign policy on Cuba has failed. The lifting of U.S. unilateral economic embargo on Cuba is one of the key issues to be noted and welcomed. While we celebrate these achievements, we cannot fall to a trap of thinking that the U.S. has now changed its heart towards Cuba. This master of imperialism has and will always be obsessed with "regime change" across the globe. We pledge solidarity with the people of Cuba and will continue our solidarity campaigns to bring to an end the U.S.'s illegal economic embargo on Cuba and to ensure that it evacuates Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Free Western Sahara:

Western Sahara deserves the right to self-determination without being controlled and dictated by the Moroccan government.

This remains the only country in the continent that is still colonised, and by Morocco.

On the same note, the Augmented PEC welcomed the decision of CAF to ban Morocco national team from participating in the next two AFCON tournaments. Morocco has always defined itself outside the continent. There cannot be any excuse to refuse to host AFCON tournament yet you avail yourself for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Palestine:

We join the millions in advancing solidarity with the Palestinians. We call on our structures to observe the Israel Apartheid Week starting from the 02nd to the 08th of March 2015 and to convene seminars and lectures in support of the BDS movement.

Issued by SACP Mpumalanga