An African, a Socialist

Today the SACP (South African Communist Party) is holding its 12thNational Congress, firstly i must explain to you that communists orcommunism is not foreign in South Africa or elsewhere in Africa, is justthat people have theoritical meaning of communism without practicalmeaning and this makes it difficult for them to comprehend it or evenunderstand it in the South African context.
Our forefathers have been communists, the mere fact that they were asharing nation, they could not live and let their neighbours die ofhunger while living beyond or above the levels of poverty. It could nothave arised, that's communism, socialism (sharing). SACP says "Socialism is the future, build it today". The struggle was about political andeconomic emancipation of our people, today 70% of our wealth is owned byelite minority at the expense of poor majority of our people, that'scapitalism! We did not struggle for that, neither did we struggle to bemanagers of capitalism like some of us have sort to do. We are socialistby nature, in many respects, how many of you can have a friend who havetorn pants and still talk and laugh about it without helping them? None.Let us build socialism today, it is the future!

Author: Thabang Tsie

Julius Nyerere said Afrikans need not be taught socialism, is in their being. My friend Thabang puts Socialism as simply "sharing". I grew up in the rural areas, I saw how communal they were, we were always sharing. There were also classes in the rural areas, the rich and the poor the royal family, indunas and just ordinary people. We had "Masimu" a piece of land to plant crops. Once in a while the mothers will help each other to work the land and to plant. They will share seeds. And if you have good crops you share it with your neighbours. When cows give birth, milk is always available, even to those who don't have cows. When a neghbour slaughters a cow, people would be there to help and in return get a share of meat. No one taught them to live like that. My question is who taught us not to live like that?

I believe in the trickle down theory. The elephant shakes the Marula tree to drop the marula fruit and all the animals get to enjoy the fruits. Our elephants BEE moguls clinch a lucrative deal and only share it with friends.