The South African Communist Party (SACP) said on Thursday it was ”deeply disturbed” by the comments of the Cabinet in response to the SACP’s central committee discussion document released recently.
”The dismissal of the genuine observations of the central committee of the SACP as a ‘false assertions’ and ‘fulminations of the imagination’ demonstrates a rather disturbing intolerance towards well-considered criticism from the executive,” the SACP asserted.
It said the discussion document had been developed by the central committee over a period of more than six months of extensive debate, and its aim was to facilitate debate on, among other things, the ”type of state we have built since 1994, and the impact of class struggles in shaping this important institution”.
”The document further analyses the nature of the relationship between key organs of state and business [both domestic and global]. These are matters that are of fundamental importance to our revolution that require serious engagements and debate,” it said.
It added: ”Whilst Cabinet has a right to critically respond to our document, our primary intention is to have a thoroughgoing debate within our alliance, and it is for this reason that we have welcomed the commitment from the secretary general of the ANC for structured engagement around the issues raised in the document.
”We also find it problematic to simply isolate one and very small aspect and elevate it to the level of the more substantive issues raised in the document. We still hope that Cabinet won’t simply be dismissive of substantive issues raised by the document frankly and honestly, and try to belittle it by characterising it as representing ‘minority views’. Peer reviews and izimbizo, important as they may be, should not be substitutes for principled political debate in our country.
”We reiterate our invitation to all to honestly and critically engage with the SACP central committee discussion document.” – Sapa