R150 000 for dinner?

When communists arrange an international conference, it seems, good old-fashioned capitalism is welcomed and all participants are, in fact, not equal.

The SA Communist Party (SACP) sent out invitations to what it bills as "The African Participatory Democracy Conference", to be hosted - for a fee - in Soweto on August 16.

Delegates are invited to purchase a gala dinner table for prices ranging from the princely sum of R150 000 for a place at the main table - hosted by ANC president Jacob Zuma - to R50 000 for a seat at the table of lesser political mortals such as education minister Naledi Pandor and Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel ranks second on the VIP list with a R100 000 price tag.

He is followed by five senior cabinet colleagues - Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya and trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa - who each warrant a R70 000 table fee.

Delegates interested in the eight remaining tables - more humbly priced at R50 000 each - will be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana; Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils; Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula who shares a table with former Zimbabwean cabinet minister and Zanu-PF stalwart Ibbo Mandaza, and Gauteng MECs Ignatius Jacobs and Paul Mashatile.

Organisers say this will provide a platform for "networking, sharing of ideas, learning and imparting knowledge, the possibility to influence discussions and the potential for self-development".

Special arrangements have been made for the capitalist class, who will be afforded the opportunity to "sell their wares" at an exhibition hall for the duration of the conference. Companies will pay R5 000 for this privilege and be provided with coffee - "only during scheduled coffee breaks" - electricity (organisers do not guarantee uninterrupted supply), and a single table with two chairs.

Ordinary delegates will be asked to pay a once-off registration fee of R500, while those wishing to visit Constitution Hill, the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Petersen Memorial will be charged an extra R100.

The conference is aimed at "people's participation, expanding the democratic space, developing an alternative people's economic, political, social and cultural agenda" and creating "alternative forms of popular governance", according to the invitation.

And the planners hope to attract "an array of regional and international civil society activists, social movements, scholars, campaigners and indigenous movements", particularly those with "extensive expertise in grassroots mobilisation and the politics of democratic mass participation".

Among those expected to attend are the ANC, the Anti-Privatisation Forum, the communist parties of Brazil, India (Marxist), Lesotho, and Sudan, Cosatu, Idasa, the Philosophy Institute of the Cuban Ministry of Science and the Western Sahara's Polisario Front.

Speakers will include: SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande; Zimbabwean political commentator Brian Raftopolous; Lotta Johnsson Fornarve, a former board member of Sweden's Isolate South Africa Committee; Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, SACP politburo member and former deputy health minister; and other left-leaning politicians from around the world.

Discussion topics will include: "beyond the denouement of racist and xenophobic violence - an activist approach to progressive worker internationalism and the effects of migration in the current conjuncture"; "the mission and the communal council as instruments to mobilise and strengthen participative and protagonist democracy in building socialism in the 21st century"; and "achievements and setbacks in the history and actuality of the Swedish labour movement in the struggle for political, economic and workplace democracy".

The SACP has urged interested parties to book their places as soon as possible as seating will be limited.