The South African Communist Party, alliance partner of the ruling African National Congress, has condemned Zimbabwe’s ”low-intensity democracy”.
After its central committee meeting last weekend, the SACP stopped just short of naming the ruling Zanu-PF regime. It ”condemned authoritarianism, torture of political opponents of the regime and gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe”.
Spokesperson Mazibuko Jara also announced that the party would send its own ”fact-finding” mission to Zimbabwe in the next three months.
This is the party’s strongest statement yet on the situation in South Africa’s northern neighbour and the only strongly worded condemnation of the Zimbabwean regime to emerge from the alliance.
There has been concern within the SACP that not enough is being done to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. The party now says it will seek engagement with the Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a ”complementary and not parallel process” with those of the South African government and the ANC.
The non-governmental Zimbabwe Research Initiative reported this week that inflation in Zimbabwe was expected to exceed 500% this year. Inflation in South Africa stands at about 11%. The organisation also reported that the Zimbabwean crisis had cost South Africa’s ”real economy” more than R9-billion last year.
Jara said the SACP would try to establish links with individual socialists within Zanu-PF and the MDC as well as with other socialist organisations in Zimbabwe.
”We wish to ensure that an independent socialist perspective emerges in Zimbabwe and the Southern African region,” Jara said.
The party also expressed ”solidarity with the workers and the poor”, who, it said, ”were the worst affected by the current crisis”.
”The SACP stands firmly for the promotion of an environment in which free political activity can take place without fear of intimidation,” Jara said.
The SACP already has ties with other socialist political organisations, such as Frelimo in Mozambique and the Communist Party of Lesotho.
Last month the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) condemned the arrests of Zimbabwean trade unionists for protesting against the 200% hike in fuel prices announced by the state.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is expected to launch an indefinite mass stayaway next week to demand a reduction in fuel prices.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the labour federation would ”support our fellow trade unionists in their struggle for basic human rights and against poverty in Zimbabwe”.