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The South African Communist Party (SACP) will not allow enforcement of any tenets or logic of the Suppression of Communism Act in our democratic dispensation. The dictatorial law was passed by the apartheid regime in 1950 to deprive communists of human and political rights, which we had to fight for, and win. We ensured the rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights, in our country’s post-apartheid Constitution, covering every person regardless of their political affiliation or belief. The political agenda led as its public face by Mr Bantu Holomisa, former general of an apartheid created Bantustan, has the hallmarks of the apartheid relic, the Suppression of Communism Act. 

For a while now without responding to him, the SACP has been observing Mr Holomisa restlessly seeking to criminalise the appointment of communists in the state. He employs as his entry point attacks directed at Dr Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Science and Technology, for the obvious reason that Dr Nzimande is the SACP General Secretary. Consistent with the repressive propaganda employed by the apartheid regime when it enforced the Suppression of Communism Act, Mr Holomisa shamelessly refers to SACP members as the so-called “cronies”. The SACP denounces that with the contempt it deserves. 

There are professionally qualified persons within the ranks of the SACP who meet the requirements of suitably qualified candidates stipulated in the Employment Equity Act and the other relevant law of the republic, and it is not a criminal offence to have them appointed in the state like all others in terms of the applicable law of the republic. Our law prohibits depriving a person, not excluding communists, of an appointment based on their political affiliation or belief. The Suppression of Communism Act is incompatible with democracy, which is why we strongly condemn the attempts at enforcing the relic of the apartheid past or its associated tenets or logic in our democratic dispensation. 

In his reply to Mr Holomisa on 21 January 2021, Dr Nzimande said he will not allow any fabrication of allegations or political blackmail to “detract him from taking action against instances of incompetence, corruption and illegal actions and other such malfeasance inside the Department of Higher Education and Training…” This stance is important to ensure accountability in terms of the law.

Issued by The South African Communist Party