Succession No Problem for Jhb Central

The Annual General Meeting of the SACP Johannesburg Central Branch was successfully held yesterday. The following were elected to the new Branch Executive Committee: Secretary, Nosipho Rosemary Thobejane Ndoqo; Chairperson, Makhi Ndabeni; Deputy Secretary, Nathaniel Komano; Deputy Chairperson, Helen Diatile; Treasurer, Martin Rall; Additional Members, Khefilwe Binang, Mosidi Maboye, Sibusiso Mchunu, Dinga Sikwebu, Tengo Tengela. It is the mark of a strong structure that it is able to hold its AGM, quorate and in good time, and to elect a full BEC composed of capable cadres. Johannesburg Central is an asset to the working class. Long live! The Johannesburg Young Communist League’s next political education session will take place on Sunday August 27th in the SATAWU offices, 13th floor, Old Mutual Building, 29 Kerk Street, between Harrison and Loveday Streets, Johannesburg. The text under discussion will be the 1921 documents of the Third Congress of the Communist International (3CCI for short) on Women (Basic Principles, Declaration and Resolution). See the linked text below. City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu (on the SAFM Sunday morning show “The Editors”) called what his paper is doing “scratching around”. Like chickens, presumably. The trouble is these chickens are scratching in the same dusty patch this week as they scratched in last, week with the same scant results. Christelle Terreblanche and Xolani Mbanjwa of the Sunday Independent did come up with a new angle: “the unintended consequence of giving (COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi) underdog status”. There may be a grain of truth in that one, at least. Certainly the excesses of the City Press Msomi gang and counterparts Monare in the Star and Letsoalo in the Mail & Guardian have put a lot of people on their guard. Cadres have quietly gone to work all around the country. There will be no stampede of the kind the movement’s false new friends would love to see. The name of the Communist University’s favourite industrial-strength sociologist, Eddie Webster, also pops up in this story. See below for the link. It is all very reminiscent of the satirical British “Private Eye” magazine, which used to have a joke all-purpose headline for tendentious gutter-press hype: “SHOCK HORROR PROBE ROW LOOMS!” “Public engagement should never be mistaken for attempts to trample and drown out dissenting voices” says ANC Youth League President Fikile Mbalula, collapsing the preachy Barney Pityana, in yesterday’s City Press. Link below. Next Saturday at 14h30 at the Drill Hall in Johannesburg there will be a book-launch for Phyllis Naidoo's latest. The book includes profiles of the 156 Treason-trialists of 1956. More details of this project will follow when known. Click on these links: 1921, 3CCI, Women, Basic Principles, Declaration, Resolution (8032 words) COSATU president denies probe, Terreblanche and Mbanjwa, Sindy (702 words) ANCYL speaks out on ANC succession, Fikile Mbalula, City Press (595 words)