Alliance communication important: Cronin

Communication among the different alliance partners was of paramount importance to ensure an effective working relationship between its different parts, SA Communist Party general secretary Jeremy Cronin said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters following the conclusion of the alliance summit in Centurion, Cronin said there was a communication gap between the alliance partners which needed to be closed.

“As we go to the elections, [we need] to communicate among ourselves and [with] South Africans,” he said.

“We need to deepen the relationship and effectiveness of the alliance...working together.”  ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said an alliance task team would be set up, comprising members of each organisation, which would create a capacity of the alliance secretariat to follow up on alliance resolutions.

Cronin said the task team was not set up with the coming elections in mind as it was not “some short term sprint” but rather a body which would take the long view on alliance policy and resolutions.

He said there were no topics within the alliance that could not be discussed.

“Within the alliance we have never felt there are topics that cannot or would not raise,” Cronin said.

“We must not fall into some kind of narrow, mechanical conformity. That should not be confused with chronic oppositions.” 

Mantashe said the major emphasis of the summit was on economic issues, with the National Development Plan (NDP) discussed among other topics.

“Its about taking a leap forward on what we have been doing over the last 20 years,” said Mantashe.

He said the summit was not a symbolic gesture, given the alliance partners met all the time and discussed serious matters.

Cronin said the alliance saw the infrastructure building programme as a critical part of the NDP, and that while the country had grown economically, social disparities remained.

“It is not a question of growing, as we did grow [since 1994] but despite growth, inequality and poverty [have] reproduced.” 

He said disagreements between the alliance partners over the NDP were not a mystery, such as where the emphasis of job creation should be placed, and the alliance as a whole agreed upon the overall direction pointed to by the NDP.