The South African Communist Party has come out guns blazing against
the ANC after it effectively closed its investigation on “state capture” and
said the governing party had handed power to factions that had hijacked even its
national executive committee.
SACP second deputy general-secretary Solly Mapaila said the party
was tired of the rot in the ANC and would no longer stand for it.
“What we can’t allow is for factions to appropriate the name of the
ANC. This is the people’s movement; we will have to take steps to correct
[this].”
A visibly irritated Mapaila challenged ANC secretary-general Gwede
Mantashe’s announcement yesterday that the investigation was fruitless because
only one out of eight people who came to his office made a handwritten
submission.
Mantashe’s office had made a call for people who had evidence about
instances of “state capture” to report it. It followed deputy finance minister
Mcebisi Jonas’ admission that he had been offered the position of finance
minister by the prominent Gupta family – close friends of President Jacob
Zuma.
Since then some people came out publicly about the Guptas’
influence over the state, including the former head of the Government
Communication and Information System, Themba Maseko. Three months ago he
revealed how Zuma arranged a meeting for him to “help” the Gupta family.
Mapaila described the report presented by Mantashe as a “whitewash”
that would compromise the ANC in the eyes of South Africans.
He suggested the ANC was in denial about problems it faced,
including the imposition of councillor candidates and the sidelining of others,
which gave factions legitimacy.
“The Gupta’s corporate capture of the movement continues. The ANC
can’t come give us a whitewash report. They must do it with credibility if they
are not afraid of anyone. They must clean corruption and factionalism in our
movement,” he said
Mapaila warned that if the ANC continued to take people for granted
by imposing decisions on people, it would be punished.
“The ANC can’t always think it can impose its decisions on people.
If any of this is allowed ... [it will] be poisoned by wrong elements, the
Guptas and so forth.”
Mapaila said the ANC’s stone-faced approach was unfortunate and
worrying.
“I’m no longer looking forward to the ANC national executive
committee statement but the factional statement coming out from the national
executive committee of the ANC. This must be stopped,” he said.
“We can’t be in an alliance with factions and corrupt syndicates in
the organisation. The ANC must rise above factions. It must take leadership and
bring authority of movement to all of us.”
Mapaila said the SACP and other ANC members would never accept the
authority of factions.
“I won’t; it’s impossible. The battle lines are drawn”.
He hoped a bilateral meeting would be convened soon so the SACP
could have a frank discussion with the ANC leadership about the many things that
were not going right in the governing party. A central committee starting on
Friday was expected to be a heated one.
Meanwhile, the SACP was fighting another battle, this time with the
Hawks.
The party submitted a formal complaint at the Directorate for
Priority Crime Investigation against the unit’s head, Berning Ntlemeza, for
allegedly using the agency to fight political battles.
The SACP accused Ntlemeza of targeting and isolating communists
after he was allegedly overhead by Young Communist League Mluleki Ndlelanga
discussing a mandate to deal with SACP’s North West secretary Madoda Sambatha.
Mapaila drew similarities between this case and the war waged
against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan by the Hawks. He said the unit was
acting on instructions from politicians.