Cape Town - SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila will address a picket in Cape Town on Thursday that will call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act on the multiple crises confronting the country and also open an inquest into the assassination of their leader Chris Hani.
The picket in District Six will be held hours before Ramaphosa delivers his State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Cape Town City Hall in the evening.
The party’s Western Cape secretary Benson Ngqentsu said the picket was named after Hani because this year they would be marking the 30 anniversary of the cowardly assassination of the former chief of staff of ANC military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
“As part of the build up to the celebrations, we take up central issues. These include the rising cost of living, the energy crisis,” he said.
Ngqentsu said the ANC-led government must resolve the issue of energy crisis as soon as possible.
“As far as we are concerned, it serves as an economic sabotage. The president must deal decisively with it, including the rail network system, especially the Central line,” he said.
Ngqentsu also said the issue of crime and criminality should be dealt with along with extortionists and the unemployment rate standing at 46%.
He added that the issue of human settlement should be equally addressed as the majority of people live in the squatter camps in the Western Cape.
“These things and the state of affairs in the country serves as an agitation or removal of the ANC from power.
“If the ANC wants to remain in power, it must address these ills that impact on the poor and the working class,” Ngqentsu said.
He also said they were calling for the opening of an inquest into the assassination of Hani, who was gunned down by Polish immigrant Janusz Walus outside his home in Boksburg, Gauteng, in 1993.
Waluz was granted parole last year after he took the matter to the Constitutional Court after many years of refusal of his parole applications.
“We believe that Waluz did not disclose the whole truth. Further investigation should be conducted into the killing of Hani in order for the SACP, the working class and the Hani family to find a degree of closure,” Ngqentsu said.
Alliance partners, the ANC and Cosatu, will deliver messages of solidarity at the picket that will be held at Hanover Street, formerly known as Kaizergracht Street, between 11am and 2pm.
Also taking to the streets, two hours after the SACP event at the same venue, is civil society organisation #UniteBehind under the banner of Electricity Action Campaign (EAC).
Cape Times