Socialist Party of Azania

Last updated

Socialist Party of Azania
President Tiyani Lybon Mabasa
Secretary-General Ashraf Jooma
Founded21 March 1998
Split from Azanian People's Organisation
Headquarters4–16 Renaissance Centre, Gandhi Square, Johannesburg 2000
Ideology Black Consciousness
Anti-imperialism
African nationalism
Trotskyism
Political position Far-left
International affiliation International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International
ColorsYellow, black and red
Website
http://www.sopa.org.za/

The Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) was a political party in South Africa adhering to Black Consciousness theory. In the 2004 general elections, it received 0.1% of the vote and no legislatorial seats at either the national or provincial levels.

Contents

History

The party was formed on 21 March 1998. It was branched from the Azanian People's Organisation. The forefathers of the party were also founding members of the 1970s Black Consciousness Movement which was led by Steve Biko. Among noted members of SOPA are Asha Moodley, Steven Peter, Rose Ngwenya, Dr. Gomoleo Mokae, Tiyani Lybon Mabasa, Musa Kunta Mohamed, Phineas Malapela, Patrick Mkhize, Console Tleane, Ashraf Jooma and the late Strini Moodley.[ citation needed ]

Ideology

SOPA's ideological framework was a blend of Bikoist Black Consciousness and Marxism-Leninism. Following from this framework, SOPA argues that the end of apartheid in the 1990s did not truly liberate Black people in South Africa (which the party refers to as Azania), but that instead the post-apartheid South African state – led by the African National Congress (ANC) – has allowed the continuing cultural, social and economic dominance of white South Africans. This, the party argued, was due to the ANC having sold out to white capital. In the Bikoist terminology used by the party, those in power through the ANC can be said to be "non-whites" as, in Biko's words their "aspiration is whiteness" and only their "pigmentation makes attainment of this impossible", as opposed to Blacks who "are those who can manage to hold their heads high in defiance rather than willingly surrender their souls to the white man". [1] The party therefore calls for Black political leadership which stands in solidarity with the Black population of the country.

It was SOPA's perspective that to liberate the poorest of the black majority of population from despair, the working class must lead a proletarian revolution which will abolish the system based upon the private ownership of fundamental means of production, and result in the redistribution of land and nationalisation of basic industries. This plan would, according to theory, reverse the detrimental economic legacy of apartheid and colonialism, which SOPA claims has left black South Africans inherently disadvantaged.

In 1998, leading SOPA figures participated in an international Tribunal on Africa, "to judge those responsible for the murderous course imposed on the workers and peoples of Africa." The Tribunal held that economic policies affecting Africa – as formulated by such international institutions as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, and International Monetary Fund, and the co-operation of what SOPA sees as neocolonial governments like that of the African National Congress – have led to disastrous living conditions for the majority of Africans. SOPA regards such policies and practices as imperialism on behalf of multinational corporations.[ citation needed ]

Negotiations with other parties

The party had regular negotiations with AZAPO aimed at merging the two parties but these broke down in 2004, 2007 and again in 2013. [2] [3]

In the lead-up to the 2014 election, the party announced that it had agreed working relations with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and that its members would form part of the EFF's candidate list. [4]

Election results

National elections

ElectionVotes%Seats
1999 9,0620.06%0
2004 14,8530.10%0

Provincial elections

Election Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng Kwazulu-Natal Limpopo Mpumalanga North-West Northern Cape Western Cape
 %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats
1999 -0/630.11%0/300.05%0/730.12%0/80-0/49-0/30-0/33-0/30-0/42
2004 0.15%0/63-0/300.09%0/730.18%0/80-0/490.13%0/30-0/33-0/30-0/42

Electoral performance and political affiliation

In the 2004 elections, SOPA received 0.1% of the vote. The party was affiliated with the International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International. Although party members include socialists of different stripes, some of its most influential members were Trotskyists, and they comprised the Azanian Section of the reproclaimed Fourth International.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Biko</span> South African anti-apartheid activist (1946–1977)

Bantu Stephen Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pan Africanist Congress of Azania</span> Political party in South Africa

The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (known as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)) is a South African national liberation Pan-Africanist movement that is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, that broke away from the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959, as the PAC objected to the ANC's "the land belongs to all who live in it both white and black" and also rejected a multiracialist worldview, instead advocating a South Africa based on African nationalism.

The Black People's Convention (BPC) was a national coordinating body for the Black Consciousness movement of South Africa. Envisaged as a broad-based counterpart to the South African Students' Organisation, the BPC was active in organising resistance to apartheid from its establishment in 1972 until it was banned in late 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azanian People's Organisation</span> Political party in South Africa

The Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) is a South African liberation movement and political party. The organisation's two student wings are the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM) for high school learners and the other being for university level students called the Azanian Students' Convention (AZASCO), its women's wing is Imbeleko Women's Organisation, simply known as IMBELEKO. Its inspiration is drawn from the Black Consciousness Movement inspired philosophy of Black Consciousness developed by Steve Biko, Harry Nengwekhulu, Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, Vuyelwa Mashalaba and others, as well as Marxist Scientific Socialism.

The Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), formerly known as Poqo, was the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, an African nationalist movement in South Africa. In the Xhosa language, the word 'Poqo' means 'pure'.

The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. The BCM represented a social movement for political consciousness.

[Black Consciousness'] origins were deeply rooted in Christianity. In 1966, the Anglican Church under the incumbent, Archbishop Robert Selby Taylor, convened a meeting which later on led to the foundation of the University Christian Movement (UCM). This was to become the vehicle for Black Consciousness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natal Indian Congress</span> Civil rights organisation for Indians in South Africa (1894–1994)

The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was a political organisation established in 1894 to fight discrimination against Indians in the Natal Colony, and later the Natal Province, of South Africa. Founded by Mahatma Gandhi, it later served an important role in opposing apartheid. It was the oldest affiliate of the South African Indian Congress.

The South African Students' Organisation (SASO) was a body of black South African university students who resisted apartheid through non-violent political action. The organisation was formed in 1969 under the leadership of Steve Biko and Barney Pityana and made vital contributions to the ideology and political leadership of the Black Consciousness Movement. It was banned by the South African government in October 1977, as part of the repressive state response to the Soweto uprising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mosibudi Mangena</span> South African politician

Mosibudi Mangena is a South Africa politician, former President of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO). He is also currently the honorary President of AZAPO while Strike Thokoane is the current President, this is not unusual in the Black Consciousness Movement as was the case with Steve Biko who was also the honorary President of the Black People's Convention in the early-1970s while Winfrey Kgware was the President. He was the Minister of Science and Technology.

Strinivasa Rajoo "Strini" Moodley was a founding member of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa with Steve Biko and Aubrey Mokoape, among others. In 1976, he was convicted of terrorism in a trial involving members of the South African Students' Organisation and the Black People's Convention, and imprisoned on Robben Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of South Africa (1994–present)</span> History since the end of apartheid

South Africa since 1994 transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule. The election of 1994 resulted in a change in government with the African National Congress (ANC) coming to power. The ANC retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. Children born during this period are known as the born-free generation, and those aged eighteen or older, were able to vote for the first time in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal resistance to apartheid</span> 1950–1994 social movement in South Africa

Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental in leading to negotiations to end apartheid, which began formally in 1990 and ended with South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.

<i>Frank Talk</i>

Frank Talk was a political magazine established in 1984 in South Africa, and arising out of the student-led anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and 80s.

This article covers the history of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, once a South African liberation movement and now a minor political party.

Curtis Nkondo was a South African diplomat, school teacher and politician with the African National Congress. Born in Louis Trichardt, Nkondo was a lifelong activist with the ANC. He was a high school teacher at Lamula High School in Meadowlands, Gauteng and eventually became the chairman of the Soweto Teachers Action Committee before being suspended for educating against apartheid. A year after the formation of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) in 1978, in September 1979, at its conference in Roodepoort the national executive was formed with Nkondo as its president. In 1980, Nkondo was suspended by AZAPO for Breach of principle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 South African general election</span> 2014 South African National Assembly and provincial legislatures elections

General elections were held in South Africa on 7 May 2014, to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. It was the fifth election held in South Africa under conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994, and also the first held since the death of Nelson Mandela. It was also the first time that South African expatriates were allowed to vote in a South African national election.

Abu Baker Asvat, also known as Abu Asvat or Abu nicknamed Hurley was a South African medical doctor who practised in Soweto in the 1970s and 1980s. A founding member of Azapo, Asvat was the head of its health secretariat, and involved in initiatives aimed at improving the health of rural black South Africans during Apartheid.

Kenny Thabo Motsamai is a South African anti-apartheid activist, convicted murderer and politician. A member of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, he has been a permanent delegate to the National Council of Provinces from Gauteng since May 2019. Motsamai is a former military commander of the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania during apartheid. He was imprisoned for nearly three decades for killing a white traffic officer during a bank robbery in 1989.

Pandelani Jeremia Nefolovhodwe is a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who served as deputy president of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) from 1992 to 2010. He represented the party in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2009 and was formerly its president from 1990 to 1992.

Daniel Ntjammu Habedi is a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist. He is a former secretary-general of the Azanian People's Organisation and represented the party in the National Assembly from April to June 2004; his tenure was cut short by the Electoral Court's finding that the seat had been allocated to the wrong party.

References

  1. Biko, S. B. [1978] 2004. 'The Definition of Black Consciousness', in Stubbs, A. (ed.), I Write What I Like . Johannesburg: Picador Africa, p. 52
  2. "Azapo, Sopa merge ahead of polls". Independent Online. 6 June 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  3. "Impasse thwarts Azapo, Sopa merger". Independent Online. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  4. "EFF candidates list for 2014 general elections". Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Supporter Website Archive. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2021.