Nzimande: Rid the state of malfeasance

12 November 2017 - 16:48 By Timeslive
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Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande.
Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande.
Image: ESA ALEXANDER

South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande on Sunday called for malfeasance in the state to be rooted out‚ saying state capture and corruption both in the public and private sectors must be decisively dealt with.

Nzimande‚ who was recently axed from President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet‚ was speaking at the main rally of the Red October Campaign 2017-2018 at Clermont‚ Durban‚ in KwaZulu-Natal.

He said South Africa was faced with three deep seated challenges to resolve.

“Firstly‚ we must eliminate the persisting legacy of colonial rule‚ apartheid oppression‚ capitalist exploitation and its imperialist domination. We must solve the resultant problems of inequality‚ unemployment‚ poverty and social insecurity.

“Secondly‚ we must deliver ever greater political‚ economic and social progress through democratic transformation‚ development and delivery of quality services to the people.

“Thirdly‚ we must bring to an end malfeasance in our state. We must deal decisively with state capture and corruption both in the public and private sectors‚” Nzimande said.

He said there was still much that needed to be done in order to build a “fully non-racial‚ wholly non-sexist‚ completely democratic and outstandingly prosperous South Africa; a South Africa without the legacy of colonialism‚ apartheid and imperialist domination and exploitation”.

“There is still a lot of work that we still need to do to radically reduce and ultimately solve the problems we are faced with as a people.

“The majority of South Africans are still facing persistently high levels of class‚ racial and gender inequality; unemployment; poverty; crime and violence in general‚ including gender based violence in particular; abuse of women‚ children‚ people with albinism and the lesbian‚ gay‚ bisexual and transgender community. In short‚ many of our people are facing a crisis of social insecurity in the household‚ in their communities‚ at work‚ at school and elsewhere. Millions of our people‚ especially the historically oppressed and the continuously exploited are not free yet.

“As if that were not enough‚ we are faced with multiple crises; the crisis of widespread state capture; the crisis of cancerous corruption; the crisis of governance decay destroying major public entities and state owned enterprises; the crisis of looting and plunder of public resources and our basic national wealth. Associated with these crises is the crisis of patronage and factional networks in collaboration with parasites and elements of monopoly capital pursued in the name of radical economic transformation‚” Nzimande said.

 

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