1 AFRICAN PEOPLE's CONVENTION 2019 MANIFESTO SECTION a Preamble to the APC 2019 Elections Manifesto It Is My Singular Honour T
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___________________________________________________________________ AFRICAN PEOPLE’S CONVENTION 2019 MANIFESTO SECTION A Preamble to the APC 2019 Elections Manifesto It is my singular honour to once again present the revolutionary vision of the APC on the kind of society we seek to build for our people, with our people. Our vision is centred firmly on the Africa Agenda. We have placed the African people in general, and the working class in particular, at the centre of our vision. Since the advent of white minority rule to date the African people— the indigenous, the majority—have been at the periphery economically, socially, culturally and even politically. The advent of majority rule in 1994 has given them only the right to vote, but the organization and running of the State has followed the same colonial track in a bourgeoisie democracy. The popular participation of the people is absent thus frustrations boil over into protests that mushroom everywhere. The APC propose a different course; put the people at the centre through social audits, through organs of people’s power; have a new, people-centred and –driven constitution that protects the interests of the people. Once the people are involved, they will determine their developmental priorities; they will unleash their creativity, enthusiasm and energy. Captain Thomas Sankara has demonstrated this in Burkina Faso. After more than a decade of service, suffering and sacrifice the APC has been well prepared and tested. We have taken it upon ourselves to hold high the flag of Pan-Africanism and socialism, as its torchbearers. Our ideological clarity and consistency of practice guarantees us a bright future and the achievement of brilliant victories ahead. We have as an indisputable fact that—at least in Africa—no idea is superior to Africanism; and that to be an Africanist is to be mentally liberated. Thus an African who rejects Africanism is not liberated and can therefore not liberate anyone. We are Africans, and our Agenda is African. We are unapologetic, we owe no one an explanation. 1 We are carrying forward the struggles of our forbearers, first properly articulated as an ideological platform by Anton Lembede and AP Mda, later by Robert Sobukwe, John Pokela, Zeph Mothopeng, Peter Raboroko, Nana Mahomo, etc. We are carrying their struggles forward, their Africanism. I am making a call to our Task Forces to exert themselves without restraint to deliver a brilliant victory for the APC at the polls. We call on our people to give the APC the power to work for them, with them. Let your vote work for you. We will dedicate this victory of the APC to the memory of our dear departed Secretary- General Comrade Paseka Zacharia Moshwadiba who passed on 15 January 2019. May his soul rest in power. Yours for the African Agenda Cde Themba Godi APC President 2 SECTION B The Basic Line A significant part of our recorded social milieu begins with the arrival of European settlers on Africa's southern tip as a direct result of the rise of European commercial capital from the turn of the 15th century. The Berlin Conference (1884-1885) formalized the colonization of Africa. By the sword, Africans were robbed of their land and self-rule and in 1910 the current borders of South Africa were created in a union between the descendants of the Dutch settlers and the British colonialists. Subsequently a political struggle was pursued to unite the indigenous Africans to fight against foreign rule and for African independence and self-rule. It was only in the 1940s that Anton Lembede and Ashby Mda espoused, for the first time, a clear ideological platform of Pan-Africanism and Socialism as guide to the struggle. This Pan-Africanist and Socialist ideological platform was to be taken forward, deepened and articulated by the likes of Robert Sobukwe and Peter Raboroko in the 1950s. The APC is formed representing a historical continuity of that Pan- Africanist and Socialist ideological platform. As a Pan-Africanist and Socialist vanguard, the APC has a historic responsibility to the African nation and the working class to provide visionary and energetic leadership, doing everything in the interest of the people and nothing against them, to pursue the ideals of Pan- Africanism and Socialism single-mindedly, without faltering or equivocation. This is a historic responsibility the APC will never shirk. The APC is of the firm belief and commitment to Pan-Africanism and Socialism as the only solution to the political, economic, social and cultural challenges and problems facing the African nation and the working class. Pan-Africanism serves as the basis for the political integration of all Africans, in the Continent and the Diaspora. Pan-Africanism serves as the liberatory creed from the cultural alienation and depersonalization of the African as a consequence of the social degradation under colonialism. Pan-Africanism is the self-affirmation of the African in a world that has historically—through slavery, colonialism and neo- colonialism—sought to cast the African as inferior, not deserving an equal share in the brotherhood and sisterhood of mankind. The 3 African is inferior to none, and Africans reject racism. Pan- Africanists believe in the scientific truism that there is only one race—the HUMAN RACE—to which we all belong. As Pan-Africanists, the APC therefore declares: Africa for the Africans, Africans for Humanity, Humanity for God. The African nation and the working class yearn for unity on the basis of African nationalism to fight for the establishment of an Africanist Socialist democratic social order, recognizing the vital material, intellectual and spiritual needs of the individual. The APC believes that socialism is the solution for the attainment of the happiness and well-being of the African nation and the working class. The APC understands socialism as the correct system that can usher proper and full development of society and the realization of the full human potential on the basis and principles of equality. Only socialism can usher true democracy, economic and social equity. APC holds firmly to the ideals of socialism as the only system that can address the age-old problem of how man can live in harmony with his/her fellow man. Man moves and has his/her being in a social environment. In the absence of social life, the economic question falls away. The social question, whose structural foundations are to be found in economic determinism, arises within the framework of social relations. To live in harmony with his/her fellow men, man must recognize THE primacy of the material and spiritual interests of his/ her fellow men and not uphold his/her own interests at the expense of those of his/her fellow men and women. It is within that set-up that the human personality can be fostered. It is socialism that can ensure that socially produced wealth is shared equitably. Socialism will ensure that the poverty, inequality and unemployment, which are socially engineered products of colonialism and capitalism are fully addressed through the public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy. Socialism will ensure that the working class, the majority in society, has a decisive say in the development trajectory of the country. Thus armed with the superior ideas of Pan-Africanism and Socialism, the APC must organize itself to play it's historic role which amongst others is: - to create an organizational machinery for the galvanization of the exploited and degraded African masses into an irresistible social force bent upon the destruction of all factors and forces that have reduced the stature of man, and also bent 4 upon the creation of conditions for the development and projection of the African personality; - to establish for the Party a training ground for the production of a determined, dedicated and disciplined collective leadership that will serve as a symbol of national unity on a Pan-African basis and also as a repository, guardian and custodian of the ideas, principles, methods, policies and programs of the APC; - to provide an administrative machinery for the direction, guidance and control of the Party in it's grand march towards the inevitable goal of victory; - to create a social order that is Africanistic in orientation, Socialistic in content, Democratic in form, Non-racial in character and Creative in purpose. In South Africa the quest for Pan-Africanism and Socialism has found its concrete expression and highest organizational form and structure in the APC. The existence of the APC has ensured that the values and traditions of the liberation struggle, of people-centredness and popular democracy, will persist and be advanced, it will ensure that the African nation and the working class cannot continue to be misled about the historical goals of our freedom struggle or about the colonial and alien class ideas that dominate and inform current political, economic, social and cultural developments in South Africa. We declared the formation of the African People's Convention as the vanguard of the African nation and the working class on the 5th September 2007. The APC thus constitutes itself as a revolutionary vanguard of the African nation and the working class on the basis of this Constitution. 5 SECTION C About The African People’s Convention 1. The APC was formed on the 5th September 2007 as a home for all patriotic and progressive forces who believe that freedom and democracy must benefit all the citizens of our country; and change their lives for the better. The party is steeped firmly in the values and traditions of the Liberation Movement of people centredness and popular democracy; and is guided by the revolutionary Mass-line. The APC has established itself as a national organisation, continuouslyraising its profile and voice on issues facing our country.