Background
The Party was formed on 21 March 1998. The founding members of the Party are also the founding members of the Black Consciousness Movement together with Steve Biko. Prominent amongst these leading founding comrades are Strini Moodley, Prof. Itumeleng Mosala, Dr Gomolemo Mokae, and Tiyani Lybon Mabasa to mention but a few. The ideological foundations of the Party is Black Consciousness and Scientific Socialism. The struggle for the genuine liberation of Azania and the majority of Black people in this country was grounded in this philosophy under the banner of the Black Consciousness Movement. The 1994 negotiated settlement and the realignment of world forces ushered in new political conditions in South Africa (and the world) that have led to the assessment of the inadequacies of liberation movements and hence the Socialist Party of Azania was born as a logical political progression.
Black Consciousness
The events of the past nine years and especially the dismal failure of the current government in the past five years to deliver freedom, liberation and dignity for black people is eloquent evidence of the need for black consciousness as a philosophy of struggle for the majority of black people. The reason is simple: despite the political gymnastics of the past five years, black people continue to be dominated culturally, socially and economically by white people in South Africa. Above all, black people themselves who were in branches of society where they were supposedly in charge and in leadership performed pathetically by all standards. There is no doubting the fact that there is a need for a deeper and more fundamental liberation of black people, if we are to govern and manage meaningfully as well as to interact meaningfully with their white compatriots. For that we need a big dose of black consciousness.
Black consciousness is as important for white people as it is for blacks. Only those whites that know they can no longer patronise black people can meaningfully live and work with black people in an atmosphere of genuine freedom and mutual trust. It is not by ceasing to recognise and relate to blacks as blacks that their racism will disappear. That is the non-racial approach that begs the fundamental question of our time, the question of race and racism. Rather it is by encountering and exposing the blackness of black people in all its dimensions as defined and presented by blacks themselves that they will meaningfully and with integrity walk the path of freedom with blacks. This is the anti-racist approach to which the Socialist Party of Azania calls all our people. In this, black consciousness is the supreme weapon of struggle as we build a new country and a new people for a new future.
Socialism
Public ownership of the fundamental means of production is the only way the poorest of the poor will be rescued from the dungeons of our world and the uncompromising avarice and greed of the few individuals who squander irresponsibly the wealth that the majority of the world have created. In the South African situation the evidence is plain for all poor and exploited South Africans and especially the black majority. The crisis of capitalism continues unabated and the agents of greed invest millions in camouflaging the real consequences and contradictions of capitalism. The Socialist Party of Azania is determined to apply its intellectual and moral energies to expose the nature of capitalist destruction of societies, communities, families and environmental resources all in the name of greed for a few and hunger and poverty for many.
Faintheartedness, Weak-mindedness and Lack of Professional Integrity
The Socialist Party of Azania will present a tough-minded, strong-hearted and competent team of professionals that the country can trust to run and manage the country with integrity, professionalism, a sense of duty, commitment, honesty and morality.
The Socialist Party of Azania believes that no government that suffers form faintheartedness, weak-mindedness and the absence of professional integrity and competence, deserves to be trusted to govern. It is no secret that South Africans are tired of these weaknesses from all previous regimes including the current government. We cannot stamp out violence if we suffer from these: we cannot produce the educational competencies that will make our economy truly world competitive if we suffer from these; the science, research and rigorous scholarship that every country needs to produce and sponsor in order to ensure the freedom of its people from the slavery of necessity will elude us for a long time if we suffer from these weaknesses; we cannot eradicate the poverty from which our people suffer if we ourselves are sick from these; we cannot stem the tide of the Aids epidemic if we are enthralled by these weaknesses; we cannot engender hope in the continent of Africa's resuscitation of its latent talents; we cannot bestow a future on coming generations that is commensurate with the natural and god given resources of our country and its people. We can only fail and betray our people and our country.