The Workers & Socialist Party (WASP) was born out of the strike wave in the mining industry in 18 December 2012. WASP believes the working class needs to reclaim their political independence.
WASP says it will base itself on the combatively of the working class evidenced in mass workplace struggles, mass service delivery protests, and student struggles against financial and academic exclusion. WASP says it will be a party of struggle, unity and socialism.
WASP will be participating in the elections on 7 May 2014 for the first time. The party will contest for the national assembly and provincial legislatures seats in three provinces, North West, Limpopo and Gauteng.
The presidential candidate and number one on WASP’s national list for the 2014 elections is Moses Mayekiso. Moses was a leading trade union activist in the 1970s and 1980s for the Metal & Allied Workers Union (Mawu) of which he became general secretary.
2014 Elections Manifesto
WASP’s five point manifesto
• Kick out the fat-cats. Nationalize the mines, the farms, the banks and big business. Nationalize industry to be under the democratic control of workers and working class communities. Democratic planning of production for social need, not profit.
• End unemployment. Create socially-useful jobs for all those seeking work. Fight for a living wage of R12, 500 per month.
• Stop cut-offs and evictions – for massive investment in housing, electricity, water, sanitation, roads, public transport and social services.
• For publicly funded, free education from nursery to university.
• For publicly funded free health care accessible to all.
Workers’ representatives on worker’s wages
According to the party, all WASP MPs and MPLs will take no more than the average wage of a skilled worker. WASP says the additional salary will be ploughed back into the building of the party and supporting struggles of workers, communities and youth.
The party adds that salary and all expenses of WASP MPs and MPLs will be available for scrutiny by all South African citizens.
WASP also promises to make real use of the ability to remove sitting MPs and MPLs from their position if they become corrupt or do not fully stand by the manifesto of the party. This right of recall will not be vested only in the leadership of WASP, but in the membership of WASP and all WASP affiliates.
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