Cape Town - Anti-austerity movement Cry of the Xcluded has marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty by launching its manifesto for people's power and at the same time endorsed three political parties running in the local government election.
Among the parties they endorsed is the Active United Front (AUF) party of embattled former Bitou mayor, Peter Lobese. The other two parties are the Botshabelo Unemployed Movement based in Mangaung, Free State, and the Unemployed People's Movement which has support in Makana, Eastern Cape.
Lobese, who was suspended from the Bitou Council in June this year over allegations of maladministration, a suspension confirmed by the High Court in September, is a candidate for Ward 3 in Bitou.
“For the AUF, contesting local government is a tactic and another site of struggle to advance the interest of the working class and the poor. The working class and the poor in the Bitou municipality have confidence in the AUF and have mandated the AUF through the people’s manifesto to contest against the corrupt ANC and DA in the 2021 local government election,” said Lobese.
Cry of the Xcluded Spokesperson Khokhoma Motsi said: “The manifesto is about changing the status quo. It is purely socialism from below. It is about social transformation. It is meant to defend and protect human dignity.
“Supporting our candidates will mean a commitment to mobiliSing and sustaining the struggle to change government policy. This can’t happen overnight, only through uniting our communities in struggle and solidarity,” said Motsi.
Cry of the Xcluded was launched in February last year by the South African Federation of Trade Unions, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and the Assembly of the Unemployed to “unite the working class both employed and unemployed, in the struggle for jobs, services, and dignity”.
The UN’s official website states that people living in poverty experience many interrelated and mutually reinforcing deprivations that prevent them realising their rights and perpetuate their poverty, lack of political power and unequal access to justice.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za