South Africa has faced one of the strictest lockdown responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the world. The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has been a disaster for the ordinary  working masses.

South Africa has now been a capitalist democracy for 26 years. The leaders of the former liberation movement call this “Freedom” or “Liberation”. But Lenin answered them long in advance when he said that:

“We are in favour of a democratic republic as the best form of state for the proletariat under capitalism. But we have no right to forget that wage slavery is the lot of people even under the most democratic bourgeois republic. Furthermore, every state is a ‘special force’ for the suppression of the oppressed class. Consequently, every state is not ‘free’ and not a ‘people’s state.’”

Bothata ba bokhaphithaliste ba Afrika Boroa bo ka hlola feela ka phetoho ea bochaba. Mokhoa o le mong feela oa ho tsoa litorong tsena tse bohloko ke ho senya tsamaiso e e qapileng. Bokamoso bo ka khonehang bakeng sa bacha ba Afrika Boroa, basebetsi le matšoele a hatelletsoeng ke bokamoso ba bochaba.

Ingxaki yobungxowankulu boMzantsi Afrika inokoyiswa kuphela ngotshintsho lobusoshiyali. Inye jwi indlela yokuphuma kweli phupha libi; kukuqhawuka kulenqkubo edale lengxaki. Elona kamva elicacileyo nelibonakalayo lolutsha lwaseMzantsi Afrika, abasebenzi, kunye nabantu abacinezelweyo likamva lobusoshiyali.

The crisis of South African capitalism can only be overcome with a socialist revolution. The only way out of this nightmare is to break with the system which created it. The only future possible for the South African youth, workers, and oppressed masses is a socialist future.

As the capitalist system lurches from one crisis to the next, old contradictions are re-emerging. Instability, polarisation and huge political shifts are taking place all over the world. As part of this process, unsolved national questions are erupting once more with renewed force around the globe - from Catalonia to Kurdistan to Ireland.