Durban — The South African Communist Party (SACP) in Moses Mabhida has expressed concern over a number of issues in KwaZulu-Natal, including the state of the province’s infrastructure, service delivery, crime and health welfare.
The SACP expressed these concerns after holding its SACP Moses Mabhida provincial council declaration over the weekend.
Delegates representing the central committee of the SACP attended the provincial council, which received messages of support from the representatives of the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA), Cosatu and the ANC in the province.
In a statement, SACP in Moses Mabhida deputy provincial secretary and spokesperson, Bheki Shandu, said that critical public infrastructure was deteriorating, deeply concerning the alliance. This resulted from ageing infrastructure, poor maintenance and poor quality affecting new infrastructure.
Many people were still denied access to essential services, including, but not limited to, water and sanitation, food and electricity (including through load shedding) and other essentials, not to mention the life-saving clinics and hospitals, due to the deterioration and destruction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and railways.
“Emerging from the provincial council, the SACP in Moses Mabhida will strengthen working-class mobilisation to deal with the problems affecting public infrastructure and seek justice and care for the victims of the floods that hit the province.
“This campaign will include confronting the failure to spend provincial and municipal infrastructure budgets, resulting in the funds being returned to the Treasury while the people direly need the infrastructure and the work that comes with its construction, maintenance and securing,” the SACP said.
The SACP also touched on political killings, expressing its concern about the increasing spate of what appears to be political killings in the province, more especially in regions such as eThekwini, Moses Mabhida, as well as eMalahleni in Mpumalanga.
“The SACP is calling on the alliance to raise awareness and isolate the thugs and mercenaries.
“Law enforcement authorities must leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of the killings,” Shandu said.
On health welfare and crime, the SACP in Moses Mabhida said: “We are facing a serious challenge of mental health. Repossessions by banks, retrenchments, unemployment, poverty and inequality are all the outcomes of the brutal capitalist system and among the major factors behind the mental health epidemic.”
Shandu also said that it has committed itself to work side by side with the YCLSA in convening an urgent joint meeting to discuss campaigns to address the problem of mental health and confront capitalist exploitation, also working with Cosatu.
Daily News