On behalf of the South African Communist Party (SACP) Central Committee and the party's entire membership, allow me to send our congratulatory message to the people and the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. The month of July this year also marked the centenary of the founding of the SACP. Our two parties were founded during the same month, seven days apart, in 1921.

Remarkable achievements

The CPC, with great discipline and the support of the Chinese people, achieved victory against semi-colonialism and the imperialists in China and established its leadership of the Chinese people. It was this historic victory that paved the way for the CPC, 28 years after its founding, to play a leading role in founding the People's Republic of China in 1949. This laid a firm foundation for the impressive achievements realized by the Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC. China moved from what the CPC characterized as a backward society to the second-largest national economy in the world, with abject poverty eliminated.

The basis of these achievements was underlined by what comrade Xi Jinping said in his anniversary message on July 1 about the role of the CPC in the rejuvenation of China:

"Since the very day of its founding, the CPC has made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation its aspiration and mission. All the struggles, sacrifices and creations through which the Party has united and led the Chinese people over the past 100 years, has been tied together by one ultimate theme: the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

Developing the forces of production and industrialization played a key part in the transformation realized by China. It is this change that saw China emerge as a key trading partner of many countries in all global regions. And, unlike much of the formerly colonized world, the content of China's international trade comprises finished products, something in the past associated with the triad economies of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. China's technological capabilities, including own product and production process innovation, research, and development, are impressive - something many countries in the former colonized world aspire to achieve.

China had to overcome many counterva­iling factors, both objective and subjective, including attacks coordinated through the exploitation of the media. Defending and deepening China's independence, including policy sovereignty, has played a major role in propelling China forward.

In contrast, in many formerly colonized countries foreign-based institutions and accumulation interests have established a firm grip on policy direction. There are imperialist economic policy documents that are unveiled as the policies of such developing countries. However, analyzed deep down to the root, those are a policy regime transmitted through the imperialist mechanisms of international loan conditionalities and foreign monopoly finance and other accumulation interests. The defense of national independence by the CPC, and its exercise of China's policy sovereignty, should serve as a great inspiration.

Milestones

Here in South Africa, the SACP built an alliance starting in the late 1920s with the African National Congress (ANC), the trade union movement, and forged a national liberation movement involving an array of other democratic as well as sectoral formations. It was through this national liberation movement with the alliance in the forefront, and in addition with international solidarity, that we succeeded to close the chapter of the colonial era and the apartheid regime in 1994. The Soviet Union, which was dissolved three years before our victory over the apartheid regime, played a key part through material support to our struggle, as part of the international solidarity that we received. China itself had earlier played an important role in supporting the liberation struggle in our country.

Our victory over the apartheid regime was a milestone of great importance. It was following this victory that we adopted the modern-day human rights-based South African constitution. When we dislodged the apartheid regime, the balance of forces, which we tilted in favor of our liberation struggle, was internationally dominated by the triumph of neoliberal class and state forces. It was in this context that we had to carry forward our strategy of the national democratic revolution and implement broader social transformation.

Closer cooperation needed

Now life in South Africa is better than under apartheid and the entire colonial era. Our people have realized massive social advances, starting with human rights, including socio-economic rights such as access to education, healthcare, housing, water, and so on. However, we still have a lot of work to do to achieve universal coverage in many areas of broader social transformation.

In addition, our post-1994 achievements are facing a great threat of erosion, due among others to the persisting economic crisis shown by high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and stagnation. The global COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation. Our key challenge is to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and resolve the economic crisis, which has caused a social reproduction crisis shown by many households struggling to support life. No country can achieve everything on its own. Partnership is important, just like solidarity during the liberation struggle.

We are therefore looking forward to deepening our party-to-party relations with the CPC, scientific cooperation with China in our struggle to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and resolve underdevelopment.

South Africa is still a minerals-rich country. However, if these minerals are merely extracted and exported as raw materials, it will remain difficult for South Africa to reduce unemployment, poverty, and inequality. It is therefore a key national imperative for South Africa to build domestic industrial capacity to transform the minerals into processed industrial inputs and finished goods. Given China's industrial achievements, we need to forge a developmental partnership to lift South Africa and other countries in the Southern African region and Africa at large out of the persisting colonial-type mineral extractive relationship with its key trading partners.

Finally, China has developed a COVID-19 vaccine. It is important to forge cooperation for South Africa to access the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine on a developmental and solidarity basis and add it to its vaccine rollout program. The efficacy of the vaccine to the COVID-19 variants that are dominant in South Africa and its safety are essential. We also recall the words of President Xi when he pledged that if it succeeded to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, China will make it a global public good. 

The article is edited excerpts of the speech of Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of South African Communist Party, at an online reception on celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China held by the Chinese Embassy to South Africa on July 1

(Printed Edition Title: Strengthening Exchanges And Cooperation)  

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