SACP wants a Morogoro indaba

Says such a conference will help ANC re-position and re-energise itself in the same way the real Morogoro conference did 47 years ago

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Free State is calling for a Morogoro-type consultative conference to cobble up a plan to strengthen the ANC’s position as the leading force driving the national democratic revolution.

This was said by SACP provincial chairperson, Bheki Stofile, in an interview with The Weekly held on the sidelines of a bilateral meeting that the party recently held in Bloemfontein with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu).

The famous Morogoro conference referred to by Stofile was convened by then ANC president Oliver Tambo in April 1969 in Tanzania in response to cries from members over the state of the organisation.

The conference was hailed as a self-reflective encounter by the organisation and led to the organisation emerging out of it stronger and more united with a clear roadmap to execute the struggle.

Stofile said: “As the SACP, we would like to call on our allies in the ANC to consider a Morogoro-type of conference, which among others, will discuss this so-called state capture.

The conference must culminate in a more united organisation able to tackle the challenges the movement faces today.

“The SACP has noted concerns raised by other progressive forces regarding the cost factor of such a conference and is convinced such considerations are far outweighed by the risks of the ANC not hosting the same.

“We are convinced that if the ANC goes the Morogoro route, it will emerge a united force.

We have to be brutally frank about the challenges we face so we can be in a position to better drive the agenda of improving the lives of our people.”

Stofile went on to pour scorn on recent statements attributed to EFF leader Julius Malema, that he would prefer a merger with the ANC after the 2019 national elections if the ruling party does not emerge an outright winner.

Malema had said such a merger must see the new organisation having a new name, with its headquarters somewhere in Soweto.

Stofile described the comments as ‘political grandstanding’, adding that the EFF leader ‘speaks left and acts right’.

“Regardless of what I think, where have you ever seen a child saying its parents must die so he can form something out of their death? Malema was just grand standing and was never sincere with what he said,” said Stofile.

Meanwhile the SACP man called on protesting university students not to take their anger out on big business because it was their potential employer.

He insisted that ruling party has lived up to the dictum of the Freedom Charter since coming into power in 1994, that the doors of learning shall be open to all.

“All though we support the calls for free education, the reality now is that a blanket free education would have undesired effects in that even those who are able to pay would not do so.

Meanwhile a senior SAPC member, Frans Baleni, says the party will discuss the possibility of contesting elections independently at next year’s national conference, but it will be careful not to compromise the tripartite alliance.

Baleni said this at the launch of the SACP’s Red October campaign at Tshiya Hall in Phuthaditjhaba on Sunday. Red October was a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917.

Baleni stressed that party’s decision to contest polls independently does not mean the SACP is divorcing from its alliance with African National Congress (ANC) and Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU), but is a way of strengthening its political power so that its voice will be heard.

“We want to have an influence in national policies and decision-making, and we can only achieve this if we have political authority. We are aware that people still believe in the ANC’s mandate and policies, which we also support, and we do not want to lose votes to opposition parties like it has happened in the recent local government elections.

“We want to ensure that manifestos we believe in are implemented. We have identified the reason for the losses the ANC incurred in the local government: and that is voter’s unhappiness with the manner in which things have been conducted, not the party’s mandate. It is better to lose votes to the party that you share same ideology with,” Baleni explained.

He said the commemoration of Red October campaign focuses on strengthening the fight against corruption and political issues.

“During our campaign, we will focus on the financial sector, farm workers eviction, defence of state-owned enterprises, media transformation, fight against corruption, rent seeking and corporate capture.

“We have already identified water shortage as the key challenge in Maluti-A-Phofung, and we have already engaged with the minister of water affairs Nonvula Mokonyane on this matter; she has confirmed that this matter needs given urgent attention,” Baleni said.