It is disappointing to note that there are still people in educated positions who somehow believe that communism has something to offer South Africa. This is apparent from the article by Nelson Mandela University academic Ongama Mtimka (Mercury, July 26) who calls for the SACP to sever ties with the ANC.
Instead of unpacking the tedious turns in the relationship between the SACP and the ANC, the question Mtimka should be exploring is what does the utterly discredited ideology of communism have to offer that is worthy of consideration in the 21st century.
More than 100 million were victims of the jackboot of communism in Eastern Europe and China. They succumbed to policies which denied the human characteristics of individual initiative and enterprise and of belief in Judeo-Christian religion. Denied the five freedoms –
speech, press, religion, assembly and movement – they and over a billion others were forced to accept the ruthless dictatorship of a one-party state elite who hypocritically claimed to represent the interests of the working class. Life under the hammer and sickle of communism was one of fear, material deprivation and austerity.
Fortunately and eventually communism collapsed in Eastern Europe when its falsehood, hypocrisy and economics proved unsustainable. The SACP like the Castro regime in Cuba are relics of an anachronism. This is always evident in the writings of communists and their fellow travellers: nostalgia for what was – which, was, as we know, an appalling, blood-sodden failure.
Perpetuating communism, therefore, is a no-brainer Yet that is what the likes of Blade Nzimande, Jeremy Cronin and Rob Davies do: perpetuating the lie that communism represents the working class when the reality is that workers are exploited for their vote so that the communist leadership can enjoy extravagant lifestyles at their expense.
Calling for the SACP to separate from the ANC is also a no-brainer. The ANC was hijacked by the SACP during the 1950s.. The ideology of the ANC like the Freedom Charter (1955) has been scripted by communists. All ANC leaders since 1950 with the exception of Luthuli have been either life-long SACP members or were SACP members at some point in their lives.
Thus, neither the SACP nor the ANC can offer a workable, worthwhile policy direction for South Africa.The horrendous mess they have created of South Africa in just 23 years is sufficient evidence of that…
Sent into The Mercury and published, 28 July 2017.
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