SACP delegates unhappy with their chairperson’s closeness to Zuma

Some South African Communist Party (SACP) delegates have raised concerns over the party’s chairperson, Senzeni Zokwana, and want him gone.

This emerged during the leadership nomination at the party’s 14th national congress in Boksburg.

Some delegates who spoke to The Citizen said they wanted to replace Zokwana, who is the minister of agriculture and forestry in the Zuma administration, with his deputy, Thulas Nxesi, who is also the minister of sports and recreation.

The delegates were unhappy with Zokwana’s closeness to President Jacob Zuma, who the SACP wants to step down as the ANC and the country’s president.

Zokwana himself aggravated the situation when he made pro-Zuma statements recently. The delegates believe Nxesi is the best candidate to replace him.

Besides the likely ousting of Zokwana, Jeremy Cronin, SACP’s first deputy secretary, has already indicated he will not stand for the position, but will remain in the party’s Central Committee.

He told The Citizen he wanted to concentrate on political education, which is his passion.

The remaining leaders, such as general secretary Blade Nzimande, who is likely to be uncontested, and national treasurer Choice Moloi-Moropa, were expected to retain their positions, while second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila is most likely to be promoted to first deputy secretary to replace Cronin.

The congress is to elect a new second deputy general secretary in Mapaila’s place, someone who is most likely to be a young person, in line with Nzimande and Cronin’s pronouncement that there needs to be young blood at the top. Another option is to promote one of the SACP provincial secretaries to the top leadership.

But unlike in the ANC, where the succession race is more intense and factional, the SACP’s nomination process was peaceful throughout. Provincial delegates were seen standing in various groups lobbying one another for positions in both leadership and policies.

The leadership election results were expected this evening or tomorrow morning.

The SACP will also deliberate on whether it should contest elections in 2019 separate from the ANC or remain as part of the ruling party. It is expected to most definitely pronounce a strong resolution on state capture and reiterate its call for Zuma to step down.

Although the SACP avoided making pronouncements on who it wanted to succeed Zuma between Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, some provinces unofficially did not hide their preference for Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa, the founding general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), addressed the congress on Wednesday.

He called on the SACP and its allies, ANC, Cosatu and Sanco, to fight state capture, saying those responsible for theft of state funds in the process must be arrested and the money they stole must be recovered.

He said the delegates must not be influenced by anger in their action and, instead, must come up with practical solutions to the problems facing the ANC. “We look up to you to come up with solutions. The SACP is well-placed to do so,” he said.

“We look to this congress to produce practical proposals on critical issues like land and agrarian reform, industrialisation and beneficiation, deconcentration of ownership and control, and education and skills development. These need to be part of defining for the alliance an unambiguous, unapologetic and ambitious programme of social and economic change,” Ramaphosa said.