SACP message to the 10th National Congress of SADTU
Delivered by the General Secretary Solly Mapaila
Wednesday, 25 September 2024
All salutations; President Maphila Makgope
General Secretary, Comrade Dr. Mugwena Maluleke
The entire NOBs of SADTU and former leaders of SADTU
ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile and the ANC Delegates
Leadership COSATU President Zingiswa Losi and other COSATU leaders and affiliates, SACP Leaders present Cde. Madala Masuku and members of the CC, SANCO leadership, Cde. Xolani Dube of SADTU Student Chapter, the broad movement – of the Alliance forces; international guests especially our comrades from Palestine who are at the frontline of war and genocidal attack by apartheid regime of Israel representing the forces of USA led imperialism
Ambassadors and country representatives in South Africa;
Government leaders across the board – especially Gauteng Education MEC comrade Matome Chiloane.
All invited guests and my old comrade from the Party underground Malombo Shikwambana – who has since committed class suicide.
Most importantly, 10th Congress delegates.
Let me from the beginning congratulate you for holding this 10th SADTU Congress to renew your mandate and sharpen your tools of class battles ahead.
Let me also congratulate your GS cde. Dr.Mugwena Maluleke for his deserved election as President of Teachers International.
Let me thank you for the support you gave especially during the elections period.
This 10th National Congress of SADTU takes place under the theme, “Mobilising the consciousness and uniting revolutionary professionals in strengthening foundational learning and functional skills, to advance inclusive and sustainable economic growth in pursuance of a socialist society”.
We cannot overemphasise the importance of foundational learning in our education system and functional skills, along with, if we were to add, conceptual skills. It is essential to pursue a rupture from the exploitative capitalist system, altogether with its imperialist regime and neo-liberal articulation.
For the working class, including revolutionary professionals, the meaning of “inclusive and sustainable economic growth” cannot be the same as the one propagated by the bourgeoisie or institutions dominated on behalf of the bourgeoisie by imperialist forces.
The bourgeoisie and institutions they dominate seek to maintain and deepen the exploitative capitalist paradigm. It is in this context that they talk about what from their own class perspective, call “inclusive and sustainable economic growth”. As you know, the workers who are economically exploited in the economy on a sustained basis are not excluded but included in the system.
However, when coming to the distribution of income from production, including trade, which, under the bourgeois society, takes the form of profits, the exploited workers are absolutely excluded. By “inclusive and sustainable economic growth”, the bourgeois and all those who take their cue from capitalism do not intend to abandon the unjust social relations of capitalist production in favour of non-exploitative distribution of income from production and redistribution to meet the needs of society.
It is therefore reasonable for us to expect this congress to contribute to a qualitatively different meaning – in pursuit of a socialist society, as the theme states – to challenge the dominant capitalist and neo-liberal notions of “inclusive and sustainable economic growth”.
Besides the fundamental proposal to advance transformation of the social relations of production by pursuing non-exploitative distribution of income from production and redistribution to meet the needs of society, we wish to highlight the importance of structural transformation of the economy as a key tenet of inclusion and sustainability.
The task facing the government post-1994 was to advance broad-based industrialisation to build, expand, diversify, and raise the levels of national production to meet the material needs of the people. However, our national manufacturing output and employment fell significantly in aggregate terms in the past 30 years, a process that began in the 1980s.
Unemployment spiked to crisis-high levels of above 20 per cent in 1996 by the narrow definition that excludes discouraged work-seekers. Later, it rose to above 30 per cent by the same definition and this is where we are at the moment. The situation is not only a result of various global crises, but also of long-term neo-liberal policy failure.
The unemployment crisis has been worse by the expanded definition that includes discouraged work-seekers. In terms of race, Africans are the worst affected. Within this population group, women and the youth make up the majority of the unemployed. This is also a reflection of the persisting legacy of colonial and apartheid oppression.
Similarly, poverty, which is also at crisis-high levels, affects the same population group the worst. So is inequality, in terms of which South Africa ranks high when compared to over 100 countries.
Under the circumstances, although millions of our people have been covered by commendable social advances – such as expanded access to housing, household electrification, water, electricity, education and healthcare, to mention but a few – we cannot argue that the past 30 years of our democratic dispensation are a success in economic policy terms.
In addition, we have problems affecting the very post-1994 commendable social advances. Too many things leave much to be desired, including in human settlements, education, water, electricity and healthcare provision, as well as in infrastructure.
Austerity, among other neo-liberal policies, has had a devastating impact on transformation and development, including in education. As if that were not enough, there is still a drive, in provinces like the DA-led Western Cape, to cut the number of educators.
Notably, neo-liberal policy prescripts, on the one hand, and corporate and mafia capture of key levers of the state, on the other hand, are among the factors that countervail greater progress. This is also responsible for the multiple financial and operational crises in affected public entities.
We are looking forward to this congress discussing a response to the capture of our policy space by neo-liberal forces and to the capture of public entities and the delivery of public goods and services by profit-driven private players.
Neo-liberalism has attacked and continues to attack state participation in the economy. Neo-liberal policy reforms seek to replace state participation in the economy with private sector competition for maximum profits.
The working class has been so affected by neo-liberal policies, including attacks on collective bargaining, and by unilateral neo-liberal restructuring of the workplace, with labour brokers, no workplace benefits etc. Because of this, among others, increasing numbers of working-class members have stayed away from voting, resulting in the fall we have seen in voter turnout. Others have shifted their votes away amid internal divisions, factionalism and related splits.
The many systemic problems facing millions of working-class members and their families have contributed to the decline of the ANC and its allies over the years, reaching a point where it lost its majority status in the May 2024 elections. While nearly all parties that were represented in parliament in the elections have declined, we need to be more concerned about the decline of the ANC and its allies both the objective and subjective factors that underpin it.
As we do so, we need to consider the fact that SADTU, as part of COSATU, played a key role campaigning for the ANC, like we ourselves have done. Yet the decline of the ANC continued, culminating in the worst ever fall in its results compared to previous elections. This congress takes place after this earthmoving setback.
In addition, it is important to pay attention to the fact that dominant sections of capital and imperialist forces sought to remove the ANC from the government. To see this, you just need to look at the distribution of the donations declared with the IEC by right-wing parties.
Moreover, the dominant sections of capital played an active political role through the vast resources that they command, including mass media manipulation (the internet included) and other ideological apparatuses, such as business organisations and bourgeois policy think tanks and propaganda machinery. We need a response to this.
In the same vein, we should not shy away from critiquing post-election coalition politics.
When, for example, we went out to campaign and vote for the ANC, we all, as Alliance partners, said we were doing so to secure a decisive ANC electoral victory. Not a single Alliance partner campaigned for what is now called a “government of national unity” which is inclusive of the DA, a party which represents the class adversaries of the working class. It is therefore false that the people have voted for this arrangement. It is a political choice made without the involvement of the Alliance partners and the working class at large.
For example, we campaigned for the national minimum wage. The DA campaigned against it. We campaigned for the National Health Insurance. The DA campaigned against it. We campaigned for transformation content of the Education Laws Amendment Act. The DA campaigned against it. We campaigned against privatisation. The DA campaigned for it. When we held the International Workers’ Day activities, on the same day the DA marched to COSATU House, accusing the federation of being the cause of unemployment. These are just a few examples. The list goes on and the DA has not abandoned its positions.
Note what happened when the President signed the Education Laws Amendment Bill into an Act. The Minister of Basic Education, who is from the DA, boycotted the signing of the Bill into an Act. Besides, the President postponed the implementation of key provisions of the Act.
Likewise, all of a sudden there is something called proposals on the NHI Act when, in fact, it is already an Act of Parliament and what is required is decisive implementation.
We cannot turn a blind eye to these problematic developments.
The political basis of rejecting the GNU compromise and our critical stance is based on several key considerations:
- a)The elections results removing the alliance from political officewas a shuddering impact on the liberation forces here and abroad.
- b)In class terms it represented the maturation ofclass struggle in South Africa, an point past the patronisation of our difference as we observed the capitalist class openly entering the electoral terrain to contest the liberation movement. These elections were therefore fought primarily against capital, that sought to retain guarantees for profit making understanding that the ANC had to somehow temper with this unlimited profitability of capital in response to the suffering masses.
- c)This strategic set back momentshould have accorded us the political moment to find our revolutionary bearings and reflect on our weaknesses.
- d)Our starting point was that we should not work with the forces of neo-liberalism and forces of state capture.
- e)The GNU is a rightward shift and a path that veered off the rails of the NDR.Efforts to bring it on track will be difficult because they are constrained by the subjective factors of the revolution irrespective of what the objective factors points to. In other words, they are subjected to the self-interests of the leadership – albeit in the name of the movement.
- f)The GNU is predicated on sustaining the current neo-liberal economic status quo.
- g)It is a categorical political choice of the ruling elite in the movement – in other words it is an ideological choice. A bourgeoisie affirmation of the neo-liberal economic trajectory. It can not change the economic status of the working class, not even drastically change the obtaining conditions of the working class in the country.It is a monumental blunder, an enormous mistake.
- h)The GNU has openly given the legitimacy of the white racists and their mouthpiece the DA to assault the dignity of the oppressed black people, especially the Africans. Invariably, this reverses a strategic gain of the liberation struggle. If you listen to the utterances of the DA’s Hellen Zille, she makes you feel that our leadership weaknesses have left us extremely vulnerable to the interests and arrogance of capital.
Because of the history of the DA and what it stands for, as the SACP and COSATU, we rejected coalition arrangements involving the DA. We made this clear to the ANC, which, in contradiction to an Alliance agreement, excluded Alliance Partners from the post-election technical committee and negotiation teams.
It is also important to note that the ANC in Tshwane has gained support for the removal of the DA to fix the multiple crises that affect the performance of that metro and service delivery, especially in black communities. But now this important move appears to be delayed or stopped and there is no Alliance consultation.
We cannot ignore political developments like these or undermine our rejection of the DA.
On the international
The crisis of the world capitalist system. The disintegration of the world capitalist system. The development of a multipolar world power system, with both Russia and China at the leading point to deepen this possibility
Given the similar imperialist attacks on the national liberation movement we should express our support for FRELIMO in the coming elections on the 9th October.
We should express our concrete support to the Palestinian people suffering this unending genocide by Israel
Support for democracy in Swaziland and wishing Comrade Mlungisi Makhanya speedy recovery after a poisoning attack over the weekend. We call on the SA police to response quickly to this problem and for SA to address the problem of mercenaries working on behalf of eSwatini government who abducts and kill pro democracy activists.
Last week we attended the Working-Class Political School convened by the Chris Hani Institution. The issues of Alliance reconfiguration, forging a popular left front and building a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor, occupied the centre stage. This is very much in line with your congress theme.
We are therefore looking forward to your participation in building working-class leadership and advancing the left and socialist programmes on all fronts of the struggle and centres of power. The working class must be firm about what it stands for and what it rejects. We also discussed at length the reconfiguration of the alliance and the reneging of the ANC on this to now what is called, The Renewal of the Movement. This despite an extensive consultative process in the alliance in which the ANC contributed through a discussion document as all alliance partners including the verbal input of SANCO.
Therefore, defining the way forward in the contest of state and popular power, will be further processed by the SACP upcoming Special National Congress and with the alliance but significantly relies on the attitude of the ANC to the reconfiguration of the alliance and of course the rapidly changing political moment in which the defence of the NDR is so critical. But whatever it is the SACP is ready for any outcome in pursuit of the NDR and socialism.
This Congress should be clear about its rejection of neoliberalism and its austerity measures, sharpen class contradictions with capital and stand firm in defence of the NDR and keep it on track.
We wish this SADTU Congress SADTU great success in advance of the NDR and not against it.
Long live SADTU
Forward to Socialism!
Down with Capitalism!