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The dual role of SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande as the leader of the party and a minister in government was again endorsed by delegates at the special national congress this week, despite mutterings that he should be stationed at headquarters full time in order to ensure the wellbeing of the party.
The lobby to clip Nzimande’s wings did not gain traction. According to insiders, no one stood up in the plenary session to back the proposal, even when party stalwart Yunis Carrim opened the floor.
Only one person raised the issue at the commissions, but it was not seconded because the dominant view was that the SACP constitution and previous congresses gave sufficient guidance regarding Nzimande’s status, City Press has learnt.
Nzimande is currently the minister of higher education and training.
The SACP constitution provides that at least one member of the secretariat should serve full time, leaving the decision to the central executive committee (CEC) as the highest decision-making body of the party between national congresses.
Having Nzimande at the headquarters full time was also going to burden the party’s purse, according to an insider.
“The decision would also have to be replicated across all the provinces and districts where general secretaries will have to be full time. It is not going to be affordable.”
At least five officials are based at the SACP office at Cosatu House in Braamfontein full time.
Read: Cabinet or central committee – Nzimande told to choose
On Tuesday, Nzimande was first to tackle the matter on the agenda when he warned, during his political report, that those who no longer wanted him around need not express this opinion under the guise of a special congress.
If members were fed up with him, he would not resist.
“If you are fed up with me or you think I am out of order, party officials or the Politburo can call me and say: ‘Take your leave and take the road back to KwaDambuza,” he said, referring to his hometown in KwaZulu-Natal. He was not going to resist “at all”, he added.
Speaking to the media on Thursday he said the party endorsed the view that communists must be everywhere, both inside the state and outside the state, in communities and in trade unions, “so we can be together with our people to tackle issues”.
“The matter that was discussed in the constitution was on who is to be full time and who is not to be full time. We already had a resolution, by the way, of our third special congress which actually says the issue of who gets deployed and who does not get deployed will be determined by conditions that are existing at the time,” Nzimande said.
Contesting elections
The party was also looking into contesting the elections on a local level, if the central committee deemed it necessary.
The focus would be on areas where the SACP believed that people had lost confidence in the ANC, according to an insider.
“Provinces that have identified areas where they can contest have to write a letter to the party’s CEC to ask for permission to contest in the particular area,” the insider said.
Another SACP leader said that although the decision was likely to open the door for a flood of requests to contest in the upcoming 2021 municipal elections, the criteria for permission to be granted would be stringent.
The decision would be based on scientific evidence, including the extent of support which the prospective SACP candidate enjoyed on the ground.
They would also have to demonstrate that the normal candidate selection process of the ANC had been conducted unfairly, said this source.
“Where the central committee feels that a case had been made for an SACP member to contest the ward, then a decision would be made whether to support the person as an independent candidate or under the banner of the party,” the source said.
Read: SACP debate on whether to contest elections alone: episode umpteen
The Western Cape SACP had stated its desire for the special congress to be made an elective congress under the banner of leadership renewal in order to bring in leaders with an appetite to contest state power.
The move, however, did not garner enough votes in other provinces.
The proposal got the support of some members of the Eastern Cape, according to a person who attended the plenary session, but other provinces and the Young Communist League were in opposition to the proposal.
However, most delegates agreed that there was nothing sinister about Nzimande’s 10-year tenure because the SACP was a class-driven organisation and “not just a political party”.
The central committee had already rejected the suggestion to oust Nzimande, saying that there was no substantial evidence that it was necessary.
Nzimande said on Tuesday that the central committee could not be contradicted by provinces.
“We can’t take a decision as the central committee that this conference is not going to be an elective conference and a provincial structure goes out to the media to say this must be an elective conference. That is ill-discipline. You can’t have a province that pronounces as if it were a central committee,” he said.
Nzimande also said that the resolution to contest state power had been misunderstood or misinterpreted by some structures which were agitating for the party to go it alone.
He insisted that even if that were to happen, it would not be outside of the alliance structure.
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Queenin MasaubiPolitical journalist | City Press | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday. |
