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The South African Communist Party (SACP) in Gauteng held a successful Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) Lekgotla over the last weekend, 5-6 March 2022 in Oupa Phasha District, City of Ekurhuleni.

The Lekgotla was attended by members of the PEC, the Office Bearers of the District Executive Committees (DEC) and members of the Young Communist League of South (YCL-SA) in Gauteng province.  Alliance partners, the African National Congress (ANC), Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African National Civics Association (SANCO) delivered messages of support to the PEC Lekgotla. A key-note address was delivered on behalf of the 14th National Congress Central Committee (CC) by comrade Jenny Schreiner.

At the heart of the Lekgotla was the assessment and analysis of the global, national and provincial class balance of forces at both the objective and subjective levels. This constitutes some of the various resolutions of the Lekgotla. In this context, the PEC Lekgotla pronounced as follows:

1)    In its analysis of the objective contradictions in the province, the PEC Lekgotla proceeded from premise that following the 2021 Local Government Elections, the province is currently dominated in the Metros in the Cities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni by coalitions of extreme right-wing political parties that promote hatred and prejudice of one kind or another. Thus, the PEC Lekgotla agreed that many of these reactionary and right-wing parties promote hatred, based on racism either white or black, xenophobia and the hatred for foreign nationals. This includes backward ethno-nationalistic tendencies which promote tribal and regional based divisions.

2)    The PEC Lekgotla agreed that most working-class households suffer extreme rates of poverty, unemployment and inequalities. This objective crisis is imposed on the working class by the capitalist system and the legacy of the Colonialism of a Special Type (CST) that has been exacerbated by the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

3)    The PEC Lekgotla further noted that the objective living conditions of the working class are ravaged by corruption and looting, e-Tolls, gender-based violence and violence against children, high rates of crime, the crisis of Eskom and poor supply of electricity, and now add to that the emergence of hostile municipalities. In this regard, the PEC Lekgotla resolved that these objective contradictions in their totality and dialectical relationship, whilst severe and very deep, do not at all constitute a defeat of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), but rather pose a serious threat that may lead to its derailment.   

4)    At a subjective level, the SACP noted that whilst maximum unity is necessary and required across the revolutionary Alliance to face these sets of clear challenges, the divisive demons of factionalism and the slate market are already in full swing as the ANC prepares for its provincial conferences, particularly in our province of Gauteng.  Already, media platforms and social media are awash with factional “road-shows” and slate branding that can only deepen confusion within the working class and the revolutionary people. Unrefuted media reports highlight two main factions at a provincial level, whilst there are many other countless factional brands at a regional level.

While the SACP does not intend to enter factional battles of the ANC, we have a revolutionary duty and responsibility to thoroughly analyse and fully comprehend the political and ideological tendency these factions represent and their implications for the NDR and the unity of the Alliance. One such factional brand is formally and proudly tagging itself “Adiwele”.

To this end, we have searched hard for historic revolutionary literature from exile, prison and underground, we could not find any reference of the concept of “Adiwele”. In our revolutionary effort to understand the concept of “Adiwele” as a faction, we relied on the day-to-day meaning of the word, and found that it has everything to do with the phenomena of things “falling”, and they may fall in various forms thus broadly diversifying its true meaning.

In its factional context, we concluded that “Adiwele” is an extremely dangerous and toxic political tendency that originates from the brotherhood of the Makariki faction, a faction that in 2018 we termed a strategic divisive threat to the unity of the Alliance and the NDR in the province. In other words, “Adiwele” is essentially Makariki rebooted. 

Noting the role and contribution of the Makariki faction to the electoral purge of the working class from the revolutionary movement and Alliance in the province, we concluded that the factional meaning of “Adiwele” can only be that of causing the real “fall” by dragging and drowning the ANC, the Alliance and entire revolutionary movement, deep into the “river”. 

The PEC Lekgotla reaffirmed its 2018 position on Makariki and its organic descendant faction “Adiwele”.  Furthermore, the PEC Lekgotla noted that the divisive legacy of the Makariki factional purge of the working class in the province has led to the weak provincial pull-down of the ANC’s national electoral dip below 50 percent, an unprecedented phenomenon since 1994. It is in this context that the PEC Lekgotla concluded that “Adiwele”, in all probabilities, could be representing the final “fall” of the ANC deep into the river.

In the same vein, the PEC Lekgotla also analysed the second factional brand formally known as “Renewal”. Whilst this faction is new in the political landscape of the province, an analysis of the true (not disguised) political tendency it represents remains murky and a work in progress. We are confident that through the Marxist-Leninist tools of analysis, we will isolate its appearance from essence. PEC Lekgotla is however deeply concerned that the “Renewal” is leveraging and using revolutionary concepts and phrases for factional slates and branding.

With this background in mind, the PEC Lekgotla resolved that the ANC, as our primary political Alliance partner, should be engaged on the true implications and dangers of the factional and slate season already in full swing in the province. If these divisive tendencies are left unchecked and to their own devices, they are likely to plunge the entire revolutionary project into further and unimaginable crises.

5)    The PEC Lekgotla also congratulated our class Alliance partner Cosatu for a successful, united Provincial Congress that saw the election of leadership conducted on principles of unity and consensus. This was necessary to avoid the divisive tendencies that have once torn apart the unity of Cosatu. The PEC Lekgotla resolved that the SACP must strengthen its relations with COSATU and affiliates and to reach out to the broader trade union movement.

6)    PEC Lekgotla welcomed the profound resolution of the 14th National Congress Central Committee held in December 2021, to convene the National Conference of the Left. The key task and mandate of the Conference is to engage and consult left forces on the best revolutionary way forward for our country on the basis of the Left Popular Front as resolved by the SACP 14th National Congress. As already stated, PEC Lekgotla has identified the rise in confidence of reactionary and right-wing political parties that have pronounced their clear intentions to liquidate the ANC and Alliance.  PEC Lekgotla resolved that our country should consolidate and advance forward on the left basis as opposed to reactionary and right-wing ideology. PEC Lekgotla resolved that the country must consolidate a progressive left agenda based on the principles of non-racialism, non-sexism and prosperity to defeat class exploitation.

7)    In assessing the international balance of forces, the PEC Lekgotla resolved to support and welcome the CC statement on the war in the Ukraine and reaffirmed the historic and profound posture against the NATO-led imperialism, reaffirmed its solidarity and support for the revolutionary people of Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine, Western Sahara, Swaziland and those in many parts of the revolutionary and progressive world currently butchered by the killing machinery of the NATO-led imperialist forces.

Issued by SACP Gauteng