Landslide ANC election victory

Winning about 70 percent of the vote, the African National 
Congress (ANC) has chalked up an overwhelming election victory 
giving it and its alliance partners a massive mandate to press 
ahead with their objective of transforming South African 
society.

In a comment on the election result, the SA Communist Party 
(SACP) says, "The working people and the poor of South Africa 
have spoken.

"The victory of the ANC in the KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape 
provinces is an affirmation that the ANC is now the leading 
political force among rural African voters in KwaZulu Natal and 
among Coloured and Indian voters in both provinces. This is 
important for the consolidation of intra-working class unity and 
setting both these provinces on a course of progressive 
transformation."

The SACP says, "But let no-one doubt that this renewed and 
increased mandate has been built fundamentally on the energies, 
aspirations, commitment and organisation of millions of workers 
and poor, those who live in dusty townships, in sprawling semi-
urban settlements, in rural villages and homesteads. This is the 
bed-rock of support for the ANC and its alliance. The ANC 
electoral success has been based on a dynamic and revitalised 
contact over many months, between our alliance organisations and 
these communities.

"Beginning with our president, right through to every grass-roots 
cadre of our alliance, we have criss-crossed our country, door-
to-door. We have explained the achievements of the last 10 years, 
we have discussed our ANC manifesto plans, and, perhaps most 
importantly, we have listened to the hopes and frustrations of 
the working people and the poor.

"The SACP agrees with leading ANC colleagues who have said that 
this victory is not a cause for arrogance. It increases our 
responsibilities to deliver on the commitments we have made in 
our election manifesto, especially in regard to creating work and 
fighting poverty. The trust placed in our movement is not 
something to be taken for granted. Moving forward, it cannot be a 
matter of 'business as usual'."

The SACP in its statement called upon the working class to take 
responsibility for its vote by ensuring that, through its 
organised muscle and mass base, it is in the forefront of the 
implementation of the ANC Manifesto.

The Party statement concluded: "As the SACP we commit ourselves 
to work towards sustained and ongoing contact with the mass of 
our people, through people's forums, community development forums 
and workers' forums. We will do this in order to ensure that the 
workers and the poor are mobilised as the leading social force in 
driving further the transformation program and to ensure that 
this electoral victory should primarily be for their benefit."