SACP prepares for life after ANC ‘implosion’

The SA Communist Party (SACP) is preparing seriously for the ANC to implode. And it is looking to form a left-wing alliance for a post-ANC future.

This emerged yesterday in and around the SACP’s national conference as Communists went further than they have done before in laying into President Jacob Zuma’s faction of the ANC, which has been accused of allowing the state to be captured by the Gupta family.

Senior party leader Jeremy Cronin was quoted as saying that if the ANC “carries on its current trajectory, heaven knows what would emerge in December if there’s a December elective conference”.

“It’s something we as the Communist Party are not necessarily taking for granted.”

He went on: “If the ANC implodes, and we don’t rule that out, we don’t want that. But if it implodes then it would be necessary to reinvent something like an ANC.”

Cronin told eNCA that in the event of the ANC shaking itself to pieces because of internal strife, then similar-thinking left-leaning groups had to come together to form an alternative.

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande was equally blunt in accusing Zuma of creating a “parallel state” that essentially aided in alleged state capture by the Guptas.

Delivering his political report at the party’s 14th national conference in Boksburg east of Johannesburg, Nzimande tacitly called for the arrest and prosecution of fellow Cabinet minister Faith Mutambi who was fingered in the Gupta e-mails for sharing top secret Cabinet minutes with one of the Gupta brothers.

Nzimande warned the future of the ANC was uncertain and the SACP needed to start considering a future outside of the alliance with the party and Cosatu.

“Trust has been broken, we were betrayed,” Nzimande said.

He called for all links between the state and businesses owned by the Gupta family to be cut with immediate effect and that a pointed commission of inquiry into state capture be instituted, with its recommendations solely based on former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s report.

Nzimande, however, said the investigation and prosecution of politicians involved in alleged corruption should continue ahead of the commission.

“The commission must not be a reason to delay the immediate investigation and early prosecution of those involved in corruption, money laundering, illegal sharing of top secret government information with private parties, and much else that has been exposed by, among other things, the Gupta-related e-mail leaks,” he said.

In his no-holds-barred general secretary’s political report, Nzimande said things had “gone haywire” between the party and ANC since Polokwane when an alliance of convenience emerged among the left-wing forces opposed to Thabo Mbeki.

The SACP leader stressed that, under Zuma, state capture activities and pseudo-radical populism had increased while authoritarianism had crept in and a parallel state and parallel ANC developed.

Nzimande said the ANC had abused the Communist Party in their relationship. He said the ANC had a tendency to take decisions without talking to the SACP.

Nzimande lashed out at the ANC for the dismissal of SACP North West provincial secretary Madoda Sambatha as an MEC without the SACP ever being consulted.

It is understood that Sambatha was fired by Premier Supra Mahumapelo as retaliation for the SACP’s call for Zuma to step down.

The action was also linked to Sambatha’s anti-state capture stance in the Zuma-supporting province. Nzimande singled out North West, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal for harbouring “thuggish militias” involved in “more sinister activities”.

“The growing authoritarianism at the top has its complementary counterpart at the regional and local levels. Thuggish militias, funded by provincial grandees, operate in several provinces, including North West, Mpumalanga and KZN.

“They are used to break up constitutional meetings of the ANC and its alliance partners, and may also be involved in more sinister activities.

“There also appears to be collusion between these forces and elements within the SA Police Service, with attacks on community leaders and activists going untouched,” he said. – ericn@citizen.co.za