J Radebe: South African Communist Party National Congress

13 July 2007

General Secretary of the SACP, Cde Blade Nzimande
Members of the Central Committee of the Party
Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC), Cde Kgalema
Motlanthe
Leaders and Representatives of the ANC
Secretary General of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Cde
Zwelinzima Vavi
Leaders and delegation of Cosatu
Representatives of other mass democratic formations
Business leaders
Members of the media
Comrades and friends

It is indeed a great pleasure for me to address this fundraising dinner of
the South African Communist Party. I wish therefore to take this opportunity to
salute the Party on the occasion of its 12th National Congress. South African
Communists take pride in the fact that they have been at the forefront of our
people's struggles for change for over seven decades. The Party was the first
non-racial political organisation in our country, a principle many of us take
for granted today. Many communists made enormous sacrifices and paid with their
lives for being among the first volunteers when the movement took the major
decision to embark on armed struggle.

One of the greatest strengths of the SACP has been its ability to do work
among the masses and build mass organisations in order to bring many of our
people into active struggle. From the 1930s, the SACP played a major role in
building trade unions for African workers. It continued with this role in
building and strengthening the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu).
Most of all, the SACP focused over the decades in strengthening the only mass
organisation of the people, the African National Congress. It is for these, and
many other reasons, that South African Communists will remain a key part of the
proud and democratic heritage of the people of South Africa going into the
future.

But perhaps most importantly, the SACP has over time ensured that new
membership into our mass democratic movement is transformed into quality
cadreship, capable of interpreting the social, economic and political
environment holistically, while at the same time outlining in clear dialectical
terms the common route we must transverse as workers, as communists and as a
national liberation movement, and therefore as the alliance. Ordinarily; our
people have high expectations on the outcome of this Congress, and that this
must reinforce the momentum for democratic transformation currently unfolding
in the country.

I am mindful of the fact that this is a fundraising dinner and not the
actual Congress wherein deep ideological, political and organisational
challenges are being debated. I do not intend to use my speech tonight to
advance my own views about the direction the SACP should take in the years
ahead. I believe these are issues being debated vigorously by delegates in the
various commissions of the Congress itself.

The late General Secretary of the SACP and leader of the ANC, Isithwalandwe
Joe Slovo, argued forcefully on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the SACP when he said South African communists, in order to play a
meaningful role in the transformation of our society, need to appreciate "the
class content of the national struggle and the national content of the class
struggle", and this has been the dialectical basis of the alliance.

Comrade General Secretary and friends,

Business is interested in the future of South Africa. It has come to listen
to what the SACP has to say on the many fundamental challenges confronting our
society, which include issues about the nature of the economy, skills
development, investment in health, education and social welfare as well as
infrastructure development. It wants to know how the SACP defines the
developmental state and its role in the economy of the country and precisely
what becomes its role as business in the real South African setting with all
the given balance of forces nationally and internationally.

Business wants to know how the Communist Party would further enhance
realities such as the hosting of the 2010 Federation International Association
(Fifa) World Cup, and how this and many other similar programmes and events
would be used to benefit maximally all the people of South Africa.

Key strategic interventions continue to be made in all sectors of the
economy aimed at ensuring sustainable growth and development, job creation and
poverty eradication. Government is leading the investment in infrastructure
through its public investment programme running in the order of R400 billion,
with the energy, transport and telecommunications and municipal infrastructure
being the central drivers of this programme. This is important in ensuring that
we place South Africa on a path of sustainable growth, development and poverty
eradication.

The government has generated the necessary resources that today enable the
country to invest R8,5 billion in passenger rail infrastructure, R8,2 billion
in public infrastructure excluding rail, R5,5 billion for national roads
infrastructure and R19,2 billion for airports infrastructure. In addition,
Transnet is investing massive resources to the tune of R78 billion in ports,
rail and pipeline infrastructure. An additional R3 billion has been set aside
for Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) focusing on Rural Access Roads.

Investment in transport infrastructure, including public transport, remains
critical to economic development. Such investment has also the multiplier
effect and the social and economic benefits are significant. It is common
knowledge that improved public transport system should enhance mobility for
both the urban and rural poor and open access to greater economic
participation. A frequent public transport and access roads for the rural areas
remain key to eradicating poverty, ensure that the rural masses participate
fully in the economy and in the construction of a democratic society as well as
realise their full potential.

A good and reliable public transport system will ensure that we begin to
integrate our society. I wish to salute the SACP for its campaign aimed at
mobilising its members and communities through its campaign for public
transport transformation. The transformation of the public transport system
will require the energies and active participation of workers, learners,
teachers, professionals and all South Africans.

It is against this background that Cabinet approved a public transport
strategy after widespread consultation with the users and other stakeholders.
As a result, government has begun to focus its investment in key transport
modes such as passenger rail, taxis and buses. Government will over the next 18
months pursue a number of critical initiatives such as high quality public
transport networks, frequent public transport for the rural areas as well as
integrated ticketing solutions, which must serve as the real building-blocks
for an accessible, reliable and affordable public transport system for all
South Africans.

Passenger Rail is a critical component of our endeavour to transform public
transport system. Government has committed over R16 billion in passenger rail
operations and infrastructure over the next three years. These interventions to
give effect to the National Rail Plan will give us the space to build the
future for passenger rail within the public transport system. It also reminds
us that rail is the most appropriate mode and efficient way of moving people in
large volumes as is currently the case between Soweto and Johannesburg,
Khayelitsha and Cape Town, Mabopane and Tshwane, Umlazi and Durban. We will
focus on building over 40 new railway extensions over the next ten years as
well as extend services to the rural provinces of our country.

The 2010 Soccer World Cup presents all of us with a unique opportunity to
accelerate the transformation of our public transport environment and other
infrastructures, while leaving behind a legacy of economic rejuvenation in
areas such as tourism. Surely our interventions must leave a lasting legacy
after the 2010 soccer games. Our plan of ensuring that by 2010, there are peak
frequencies of 5 to 10 minutes and that public transport services are available
for at least 14 to 18 hours a day, together with improved public transport
infrastructure, must be a lasting legacy for all South Africans. Indeed, public
transport received a major boost with the allocation of R9,2 billion over the
next three years which will be spent by the various host cities and State-Owned
Enterprise (SOE) for the preparation of the event.

For the current Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the following
allocations will benefit public transport:

* Ethekwini, R851 million for public transport infrastructure, road
improvements, station upgrades park and ride facilities
* Nelson Mandela, R581 million for airport links, non-motorised transport
* The City of Tshwane, R694 million for public transport infrastructure
including the Central Business District and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
* The City of Johannesburg, R1,3 billion for the extension of the strategic
public transport network and Intercity Distribution System (ICDS)
* Ekurhuleni, R27 million for inter-modal transfer facilities and non-motorised
transport
* City of Cape Town, R766 million, for public transport and long distance cross
border facilities
* Rustenberg Local Municipality, R69 million for public transport and
planning
* Mangaung Local Municipality, R298 million for pubic transport
infrastructure
* Polokwane Municipality, R179 million for Public Transport Holding
Facilities
* Progress is also being made in Mbombela, Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp/Orkney
areas, Amathole District Municipality - King Sabata Dalindyebo, Stellenbosch
and others.

All these figures do not touch on other financial instruments which the
municipalities and provinces can directly access from government, such as the
Provincial Infrastructure Grants (PIGs) the Municipal Infrastructure Grants
(MIGs) and others.

As we prepare for the years ahead, preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup
will gain momentum. It is important that communities, women and youth
formations, people living with disabilities, and small business as well as the
business community at large should gear themselves for this important
challenge. The 2010 Fifa World Cup has given us the real opportunity to drive
the agenda for change and we should do so with determination and clarity of
mind.

As I conclude, we need to bear witness to the massive investments we have
made in infrastructure to make Karl Marx's arguments as relevant today as they
were when he first postulated them. When some, such as Marshal derided him as
"a tendentious thinker", and Eugen von Blohm castigated him as "a thinker with
no abiding future", we only have to look around us to be convinced of his
everlasting ideological heritage and our need to massify our delivery to the
people as a whole. His abiding theoretical presence will continue to influence
the direction of the SACP in future.

Historically, to be a communist is to master democratic engagement through
clear theoretical analysis of the concrete conditions as they present
themselves in various forms as opposed to idealism. Like a seasoned medical
doctor, communists must not prescribe solutions without having identified what
causal factors are behind the evident ailments we face as society. It is for
this reason that our people, and all alliance structures expect a lot from any
meeting of communists, but more so when it is such an important Congress of the
SACP, to give theoretical and practical solutions on the challenges we face! No
doubt, business would and must associate itself with the SACP because it is
both a historical and contemporary fact that the party has and will always
shape our dispensation. Even if we were to differ ideologically with business
as communists, however, we must continue to forge partnerships with business in
championing the cause of our struggle.

I wish the SACP all the best on its 86th birthday anniversary.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Transport
13 July 2007
Source: Department of Transport (http://www.dot.gov.za)