Our Democratic Communists

Some would argue that I am easily confused. This is the case when trying to understand the political leadership in the good old Republic of South Africa.

The African Nation Congress (ANC) are the ruling party. The ANC are said to stand for democracy. Now let's define 'democracy'-
1) Government by the people, exercised either dirctly or through elected representitives.
2) Common people are considered the primary source of political power.
3) Majority rule.
4) Social equality and respect for the individual within the community.

Pretty clear. Now the waters become a little less clear. The ruling party has some friends and they form a strange alliance. The two other friends being the Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party. How many ruling political party's have a trade union (who by definition, are usually the enemy) as their best friends?

The there is the Communist party. Again let us look at a definition-this time, of 'communism.
1) A system characterised by collective ownership of property and the organisation of labour for the common advantage of the members.
2) A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authitarian party holds power, claiming to make progress towards a higher social order in which all good are equally shared by the people.

I admit I am no political brain, but I do note that these two forms of government are poles apart.
What complicates matters even more is that some senior posts in government are held by members of the Communist Party, and some senior posts in the Communist Party are held by senior members of the ANC.
Often the ANC will have a press conference, mentioning SA is a democracy and behind the speakers, you will not a communist flag.

From my understanding of politics this is a worry. A warning light type of issue. Especially due to South Africa's high poverty levels, the share with everybody Communist doctrine must look very appealing to the poverty stricken. Even from my point of view, on the face of it, I would love to share in the millions of the rich. But truth be know, Communism has not worked anywhere else in the world and there is no reason why it would work here. Despite this there are calls every now and then to nationalise everything. (Based on the state run organisations, SABC, Eskom, SAA, this should be avoided. Privatisation should be welcomed)
The big 'fight' was for democracy so everybody could have say in government. (on paper- realism is far from that-another blog entry this one is).

Our new president, Jacob Zuma, is very warm towards the other two alliance partners, and this is a worry as well. The good news though, is there have been some rather large cracks forming between the ANC and the other two. Again, we will not go into this, as it is an issue by itslelf.

All I wanted to do in this entry is try to get some understanding on how a democratic ruling party, can be so intertwined with a communist party and a trade union.

And in closing, just when you think the Communists are all bad, their booing off the stage of our friend Julius Malema, does gain them a bit of respect from me.