In a bid to reduce the rising numbers of unemployment and poverty, the SACP said it planned on leading a “massive campaign” on people’s right to work and food.

This was revealed by SACP’s national first deputy secretary Solly Mapaila who addressed the SACP’s provincial congress at the East London City Hall, Eastern Cape, at the weekend.

The SACP in the Eastern Cape elected its provincial leadership at the party’s 9th provincial congress.

The elected leaders are Xolile Nqatha as provincial secretary, Mzoleli Mrara as provincial chair, Zodwa Zothani as provincial treasurer, Sisibone Rakaibe as the first deputy provincial secretary, Simphiwe Thobela as the second deputy provincial secretary, while Mpumelelo Saziwa also retained his position as deputy provincial chair.

All were elected unopposed.

Mapaila said the state had to take responsibility for people to work.

“We must force the state to take responsibility for people to have jobs. Every single South African must work.

“The SACP needs to lead a massive campaign on the right to work.

“This should be our number one priority. The right to work must go hand in hand with the right to food,” Mapaila said.

Mapaila said he had visited Ngqushwa and Cala areas where communities were trapped in poverty with no support from the state.

He said the state had a responsibility to assist the communities to produce their own food.

Held under the theme “consolidating working-class power for a transition to socialism in our lifetime”, the provincial congress was also addressed by ANC provincial deputy chair Mlungisi Mvoko.   

Nqatha said: “This congress theme calls on all of us to first engage seriously in ideological reflections that give a concrete account of the scope of working-class political power in present-day SA.

“This is to pose questions about the current organisational capacity of the working class to wield power, the degree to which the transformation in the structures of our political economy have eroded the size and shape of the working class and whether the class is politically consolidated or is seriously fragmented as to weaken any possibility of effectively wielding power,” Nqatha said.

Mapaila said the country’s working class had suffered major setbacks.

He appealed to the working class to be united in fighting for their rights.

“Workers continue to lose jobs. The public campaign for the right to work is crucial,” he said.

He could not elaborate on when the campaign was likely to start.

Nqatha said the majority of people in SA were still trapped in poverty even though the country had minerals.

“Why do we continue facing hunger when we have minerals beneath our soil?

“These are the questions we need to ask ourselves as we ponder the debate on the transition to socialism,” Nqatha said.

He said the economy of the country was still in the control of the few.

“It is as if we are visitors in our own country because the majority of the people in the country do not benefit from economic opportunities,” Nqatha said.