[YCLSA Discussion] In defence of Polokwane... Moutse to Mpumalanga

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:25:49 -0700

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VC


 
In defence of Polokwane…Moutse to Mpumalanga


1.    Background
 
The 2007 Polokwane national conference of the African National Congress that saw the victory of popular forces led by the working class and the poor together with the September 2008 presidential recall ushered in and laid a solid foundation for popular struggles in many communities to reclaim their space and provide strategic leadership to the popular discontent with government and or the state.
 
The South African Communist Party branches in Moutse sought cease the moment and provide much needed strategic leadership to drive the agenda as espoused in the medium term vision of the party therefore to build working class hegemony on the terrain of the national democratic revolution.
 
This took the form of heightening popular mobilization of our entire community behind the 12th National Congress resolution on the party and the communities which sought to campaign to ensure that decisions on demarcation are made democratically with key guiding principles being the objectives of our national democratic revolution and the will of the people.
 
As a consequence of those popular struggles on the one hand and both Polokwane and our 12th congress resolution, the NEC of the AN C took a decision to take back Merafong to Gauteng while consulting with other affected areas of Moutse and Matatiele guided by both Polokwane and 12th party congress resolutions.
 
2.    Stages in Consultations
 
1.      The Minister of Provincial and Local government and CEC member Cde Sicelo Shiceka constituted a team of officials in his office led by Cde Nhlakanipho Nkotwana which convened all stakeholders to voice their views on the 19th December 2008 in Dennilton Moutse and Not less than 50 stakeholders participated and presented their views in this process and overwhelmingly wanted to go back to Mpumalanga.
2.      On the 5th and the 14th February 2009, the Secretary General of the ANC and our National Chairperson Cde Gwede Mantashe led a team of Cdes from Both provinces led ANC  Provincial Secretaries in Joe Maswanganyi and Lucky Ndinisa with alliance patners Cde Solly Mapaila from SACP and Cde Ayanda from MKVA visited Groblersdal and Dennilto respectively to listen to the views of stakeholders in relation to demarcation issue.
3.      In March, the same team visited Moutse in a follow-up to inspect all projects cited during presentations for and against Limpopo with a view to concretizing presentations and subsequent presentation of a report to the NEC.
4.      Consequently, Cabinet took a decision in April shortly before elections confirming an earlier decision of the NEC that there must be a consultative village based process to test the views of our people in a scientific way to assist the ANC NEC to come to a determination.
5.      On the 10th of October 2009, The ANC Secretary General / National Chairperson Cde Gwede Mantashe convened a meeting at Luthuli house attended by ANC Provincial Chairperson of limpopo and Sekhukhune Regional Chairperson Cde Cassel Mathale and David Magabe respectivey together Cde Malusi Gigaba (ANC  Mpumalang NEC deployee) and Kgosi Piet Mathebe with representatives of Moutse SACP branches and other structures in Moutse.
6.      The meeting was briefed and given documents entitled process plan for consultations in Moutse and Matatiele which provided a step by step guide to the consultations in this area’s leading up to the 28th to the 02nd October 2009 views testing process.
7.      On the 27th September 2009,Cde Sicelo Shiceka briefed all stakeholders who converged at Dennilton Philadelphia Hospital on the state of readiness of his department to kick start the process of testing the views and subsequently addressed community at the OR Tambo Stadium re-affirming the process of testing their views beginning the following morning.
8.      This process took place within a climate and or an environment of peace and security as police were mobilized as well as the technical support that was given to the department by the IEC. The Departmental officials were properly trained and briefed of all eventualities and were able to deal with issues of disputes that arose from time to time. All people whose views were tested appeared on the voters roll for the 22nd April 2009 elections and were monitored by our Cdes and other structures that had an interest on the matter.
9.      Although municipalities of Marble-hall and Elias Motsawledi invested public resources for people to vote for Limpopo, there were no serious incidences of corruption and crime.
10.  In both Municipalities, around 37% of registered voters came out to vote and an overwhelming 74% voted in favor of Mpumalanga. Considering voter turnout of 44% in local government elections of the year 2000 and 48% in 2006 respectively, we have done very well collectively to ensure that as many people as possible participate in this process in defense of our 12th Congress resolution.
 
3.    Views testing and the new anti left tendencies
 
1.      As a consequence of the dismal performance by Limpopo in the views testing exercise due to the popular mobilization and organizational coherence of the SACP brances in Moutse in defense of both Polokwane and Party Congress resolutions, the ANC Sekhukhune region convened a Special General Council on the 04th October 2009 to assess their performance because of their earlier resolution to campaign for people of Moutse to remain and vote for Limpopo.
2.      Although it was not surprising that a deep seated anger will be directed at the branches of the SACP and other popular forces/segments in Moutse, it became very worrying when the Special General Council called for the sacking of Cde Gwede Mantashe ,Cde  Blade Nzimande and Cde Sicelo Shiceka from the NEC of the ANC as well as the sacking of 12 ANC councilors and 1 municipal official ( Cde Patrick Aphane) for taking a stand and defending the 12th congress resolution of the party on this issue.
3.      Our internal discussion document in preparation of the 2nd Special National Congress captures this attitude very well when it says that there is a new elitist tendencies within our movement which does not seek to abolish the (class) instruments and power built by the 1996 class project in both our movement the state but seek to lay its hand on these instruments to advance its own factional class interest and the total demobilization of the ANC and the working class.
4.      Of particular concern is when tenderpreneurs masquerading as traditional leaders seek to lead the popular struggles to subjugate the views of the people and total demobilization of the SACP while on the other hand seeking to befriend those who has political leverage on power and resources of our state in a way that blurs the line between business interest and government service in a popular democracy like south Africa.
5.      The SACP in Moutse branches resolved never to falter in this particularly challenging environment which seeks to demobilize and suppress popular mobilization of the working class and the poor in defense of the medium term vision to build working class hegemony on the terrain of the national democratic revolution.
 
 
Communists to the front to build a better socialist world……….
 
Patrick  Aphane
SACP Stompo Branch Secretary  
082 934 5637
 

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