As the South African Communist Party (SACP) gears up for its 85th anniversary celebration this weekend, the ruling African National Congress has said that it values the relationship it has with its alliance partner.
In a statement on Thursday — ahead of this weekend’s celebrations in Pietermaritzburg to commemorate the 85th anniversary of its founding in Cape Town — ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said: “This is a relationship that has stood the test of time, and which has served to strengthen both organisations in the common struggle for national liberation.”
About 70-odd communists serve in the ruling ANC caucus in Parliament.
Ngonyama said: “The achievement of democracy in South Africa and the advances made in our country over the last 12 years would not have been possible without the existence of this relationship.”
Ngonyama noted that the ANC’s message would be formally delivered at the SACP national rally by its deputy president Jacob Zuma. Zuma’s trial for corruption begins in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday.
Ngonyama, meanwhile, said: “With the valuable assistance of the SACP and other alliance partners, the democratic movement has successfully registered victories in three national democratic elections and in three local democratic elections.
“The ANC continues to share with the SACP the common goals and programmes aimed at eliminating poverty and unemployment. We remain steadfast in our pursuit of our declared objective of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014.
“We applaud the SACP for keeping the red flag flying in South Africa throughout the 85 years of its existence.
“The SACP has established itself as an honoured and leading force within South Africa’s democratic movement. The moral conduct and intellectual pedigree of communist cadres, and the manner in which they conducted themselves within the liberation movement, has earned the party a unique and central role in the ANC.”
“As we celebrate the achievements of the SACP and the democratic movement, and focus our energies on the tasks and challenges ahead, we are reminded of the internal memo of the SACP central committee in 1967, which said: ‘Revolutionary struggle is not an invitation to a picnic. All communists must therefore make it part of their duty to instil the spirit of sacrifice wherever they are, to inspire the freedom fighters in the periods of difficulty [and] to constantly emphasise that the victory of the revolution is inevitable’.”
“It remains our conviction that the victory of the national democratic revolution is inevitable,” suggested Ngonyama. — I-Net Bridge