South African Communist Party (SACP) General-Secretary Blade Nzimande has warned the economic cluster against re-introducing Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) type of policies saying they will not change the economic outlook of the country.
Growth Employment and Redistribution is a macro-economic strategy that the Finance Department had adopted in June 1996. The aim of the five-year strategy was to strengthen economic development, broaden employment, and redistribute income and socioeconomic opportunities in favour of the poor.
SACP Nzimande: A successful economic policy for our country is as good as it is able to get a buy in from the key motive forces of the national democratic revolution – our shared programme of transformation and development.
Every Communist a Community Activist!#SACPRedOctober
— SACP (@SACP1921) October 6, 2019
Nzimande was speaking at the launch of Red October month in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
“What we want to make absolutely clear as the SACP today and we will stand firm on this. We do not want people to take us back to want and impose neo-liberal GEAR type economic solutions in our country. That thing did not work and we do not want to go back to GEAR. Do not try and use the economic situation to try and impose GEAR on us.”
Nzimande: For example, South Africa has an unemployment crisis of approximately 10.3 million active and discouraged work-seekers combined. Inequality and poverty remain widespread, despite the commendable massive social achievements millions of our people experienced since 1994.
— SACP (@SACP1921) October 6, 2019
Meanwhile, African National Congress (ANC) Provincial Chairperson Oscar Mabuyane says the party needs to work with real communists that understand the mission of the tripartite alliance.
“We need more communists in the ANC. We do not want Communist Party in the ANC. We need more communists in the ANC for us to strengthen the alliance with the Communist Party. We need communists in the African National Congress, and African National Congress is an oganisation of the communists and all other people from across other classes of society.”
