13 April 2020
The Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) warns on the quasi-hostile takeover of SASOL, the auction of the entity to global imperialist forces and calls on the South African government to urgently intervene to rescue the entity for renationalization. We equally caution the President and cabinet to act in the best interest of the South African population against a clear imperialist onslaught.
As a developmental state, the South African government ought to be decisive in executing the state role of intervention in the economy in building a capable developmental state. It is on the basis of the latter that the YCLSA calls on cabinet to urgently intervene against the mafia styled, imperialist-led auctioning of SASOL.
It remains the call of the YCLSA as firstly articulated by the SACP that SASOL should be renationalized and thereafter socialized (Nationalization for Socialization). However, the recent developments, which are not immune to an obvious imperialist onslaught on the South African political economy, and generally the global south, will have greater consequences to the call for nationalization if the government does not intervene immediately.
Firstly, the excitement of the 1996 class project during the start of the heightened neoliberal era which started with the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) macro-economic policy created conditions for the dual listing of SASOL, which may facilitate this auctioning and potential hostile takeover. Therefore, we equally call on government as the major shareholder to pay attention to the under-resourced-unnecessary BEE scheme which failed in 2018 under Inzalo and likely to fail again in 2021.
Moreover, nationalization under the current conditions, if not mitigated through a state-led decisive intervention, can only guarantee the inheritance of the BEE scheme with the entity’s environmental obligations while the US imperialist agents and the South Africa bourgeoisie elites migrate the entity to the USA.
The current debt is far greater than the assert value of the entity. This is deliberate and a result of business interests of the imperialist elites in an attempt to migrate the entity to the United States of America.
In 2006, the SACP made a call for urgent renationalization of the entity during the time when the then Finance Minister Trevor Manuel asserted that a windfall tax on locally produced synthetic fuel would be considered.
The entity has now been downgraded by all rating agencies and undergoing an intense hostile imperialist takeover which will appreciate the entity being liquidated in South Africa. The YCLSA dares SASOL to never even attempt to retrench workers, or even transfer the burden to the working class, as an attempt to clean the mess created by the elites and the bosses.
The entity, together with ESKOM, are some of the largest polluters in the country. The entity is popular for green-house gas emissions and environmental degradation.
During the recent YCLSA National Committee meeting, the Minister of Public Enterprises made irritating remarks regarding the entity which the National Committee rightfully rejected. The same Minister has suddenly gone silent instead of contributing in the economic cluster to rescue the entity.
The YCLSA therefore urgently calls on the government to intervene and amongst others consider the following demands:
- Corporate Social Investment that is meaningful
- SASOL to be charged and taxed for environmental pollution
- A plan to rescue the entity for the purpose of re-nationalization and later socialization
The YCLSA calls on the President to be decisive and intervene in the economy as it is rightfully expected of a capable developmental state.
Issued by the YCLSA
For Inquiries contact:
Dloze Matooane
National Spokesperson
066 570 3902
Whatsapp: 0826920127
Email: dmdmatooane@gmail.com
