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The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Free State Province (FS) held an ordinary Provincial Working Committee (PWC) meeting on 12 February 2023 in Bloemfontein.

The SACP PWC reflected on recent international and domestic developments and paid substantial attention to recent developments in our province, evaluated the impact and implications of these developments on the national democratic revolution, as well as the political and organisational work of the Alliance in general and immediate tasks of the Party, in particular. The PWC also reviewed the work of the Party, agreed on specific actions to strengthen and improve coordination of our work, including the task of strengthening the Left-Axis within the Alliance, in the face of an emboldened, resurgent neo-liberal outlook in critical areas. 

ANC Conferences and strengthening of provincial and local government in the Free State to advance the NDR and defend our democratic gains.  

The SACP PWC congratulated the ANC Free State for convening a successful provincial conference and acknowledged the newly elected Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), which is broadly well representative. The Party in the province appreciated that, unlike in the past, the most decisive elements and outcomes of the conference were mainly decided through unchoreographed, open democratic processes. The restoration of the centrality, role, and place of branches in the organisation is important to the task of renewal and reconnecting with the mass base and ensuring leadership accountability. 

The SACP PWC characterised the ANC conferences in the province as constituting an important step forward in the process of renewal and uniting the movement. However, in our view, these conferences in themselves do not necessarily constitute a decisive breakthrough but places the organisation firmly on a strong footing to decisively revitalise, renew, unite, and reposition the ANC as an effective instrument to advance the NDR in the interest of the people, the majority of whom are the working-class and poor.

The PWC believes that, amongst the determining factors toward a breakthrough, is the need for meticulous function and exercise of leadership by the ANC in this delicate post-conference period, and the ability to speedily guide and reposition the ANC and the democratic government it leads to respond effectively to the pressing internal organisational challenges, as well as the persistent socio-economic service delivery and developmental challenges confronting our communities, respectively. The measure of success and a breakthrough is therefore the extent to which our movement and the new leadership, working with the Alliance and all progressive forces, are able to advance in serving our people selflessly and materially changing their lives and living conditions for the better.

Consequently, the SACP is largely encouraged by the communicated main content of the outcomes and programmatic focus areas of the recent ANC PEC and the Lekgotla. In this regard, the SACP provincial leadership was briefed by the ANC provincial leadership on decisions to strengthen provincial and local government. Specifically, this relates to the ANC decision to redeploy the Free State Premier and the Executive Mayor of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality. The SACP in the province noted the developments and understood that ANC internal processes in this regard are still being pursued with higher structures for finality. 

The SACP agrees that there is objective necessity, arising from objective analysis of concrete conditions in our province, to act decisively and consistently to strengthen both provincial and local government with the express intention to primarily address pressing societal challenges. For the Party, this constitutes a much deeper and critical task that necessarily goes beyond a change or movement of faces. The SACP PWC underscored the importance of handling these matters with great care, ensuring pragmatic political and legal consideration; and importantly, embracing the spirit of meaningful consensus seeking consultation with the Alliance. 

The SACP will internally ventilate some of the principled issues with the ANC in planned structural interactions, with the intention to contribute positively towards these processes and appeal for predicating and subordinating several interests or possibilities, expectations and permutations to the fundamental interests of the people, the revolution and the movement.

ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Boitumelo Hospital in Kroonstad

The PWC expressed grave concerns regarding the debilitating situation at Boitumelo Hospital where the workforce was forced by intolerable conditions of employment to take extraordinary measures to draw attention and assistance of the authorities, which remains insufficient. The SACP calls for urgent intervention by the Health Department to attend to the immediate infrastructural needs and additional staff and other requirements at the institution, including addressing the conditions of employment of the workers and reversing the senseless suspension or removal of workers at the hospital. The SACP also demands urgent investigations into the quality and value for money on the financial expenditure on recent work at the Hospital that seems to have worsened conditions rather than aid better provision of health care services, despite the spending of millions of rands.

The provision of health care services in the province is generally experiencing challenges. These challenges are also partly due to systemic disparities that exist within the two-tier health system between private and public health care which elevates the commodification of health care, prioritising private profits, before people and life.  It is for this reason that the SACP calls for speedy rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI) in order to guarantee access to quality health care for all and give effect to the constitutional right to life through ensuring equality in health care. 

On education and matric results

The SACP in the province congratulated the class of 2022 and everyone that played a role in the education and development and improvements in the education system and on the learners. The PWC reaffirmed the expressed Party position that those who did not make it should explore other existing alternatives. The objective is to work towards obtaining general improvements in the matric results, systematically eliminating aspects responsible for uneven development and performance in the sector, rather than encouraging an unhealthy capitalist-like competition between provinces and, by extension, amongst learners.

The PWC agreed that the matric pass rate alone does not reveal the necessary detail required to comprehend the dynamics that play out in this sector which still exhibits the historic systemic inequalities that existed in the past within the education system. 

In this regard, the SACP PWC implored its Young Communist League in the province, working together with the Progressive Youth Alliance, to undertake a deep dive and conduct a comprehensive analysis on the results, technical and socio-economic factors and conditions in the sector that has an impact not just on the overall percentage but on the real lives and right to education of the learners from inception level, their movement through the system up to matric, including tracing their further movement in accessing higher education. This should assist in highlighting priorities to enhance access, eliminate inequalities and drive general improvements in education.

On Electricity and load-shedding

The SACP PWC expressed continued concern on the ongoing rolling load-shedding and its devastating impact on the economy and society. Whilst we welcome the framework of interventions announced through SONA by the President, the PWC agreed with the SACP Central Committee on the need for “extensive consultation on the direction that should inform the national state of disaster and the content of policies and measures to be implemented”, and, in our view, this should include alignment on modalities for such implementation. We believe that consolidation and streamlining of overall energy policy, provision and interventions, in line with ANC national conference resolutions, is the optimal way forward.

The SACP PWC views the recent electricity increase given to Eskom by NERSA as nothing but burdening society to shoulder and fund the failures to maintain the Eskom fleet of power stations and keep it online, in line with international norms, to consistently contribute to the national grid. The working-class and poor must be cushioned from the impact of this increase and decisive efforts to resolve productive capacity issues in the energy sector should be intensified. 

On worsening situation in Jaggersfontein following a mining sludge dam burst tragedy

The SACP in the province is highly concerned by the neglect and failure to deliver on promises made by both government and the private company to address dire consequences of the avoidable mining sludge dam burst tragedy in Jaggersfontein and keep those responsible liable. The Party in the province urged that “the mining company must shoulder the full responsibility of all costs associated with this tragedy, and this must include medical provision, decent housing, reconstruction of all affected private and public infrastructure, provision of all necessary means of livelihood for the affected communities as well as replacement and financial compensation for their losses''. 

Our experience on the ground is that the community remains struggling on many fronts with many promises unfulfilled and the community left to privately fend for itself against established capital. Moreover, we have learned of unacceptable formal processes initiated by the capitalist mine bosses to retrench and potentially shut down. The mine bosses and their offshore capitalist handlers must be held responsible and accountable. 

The SACP calls on government at all levels, including law enforcement agencies and all progressive forces to give focused attention and assist communities of this historically supra-exploited town. The PWC agreed to pay attention and extend activism in this area and make its contribution, working with other forces on the ground.

Issued by the SACP Free State Province