Blade hits back at Zuma, denounces ‘political plots’

Cosatu’s national congress appears to be a gathering place for the people striking back at those accused of plotting Cyril Ramaphosa’s demise, with South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande criticising former president Jacob Zuma for confusing young people with his ongoing lectures to university students.

Without naming him, Nzimande yesterday said it was misleading to tell students the state is not captured, simply because certain arms of the state were not captured.

“We cannot wait until all the state is captured before we complain,” Nzimande said.

The SACP boss was addressing delegates on the second day of Cosatu’s 13th national congress in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.

His comments were in apparent reference to Zuma, who has been campaigning to students at university campuses around the country, lecturing them on free education and trying to discredit the state capture inquiry, in which he is allegedly implicated.

Nzimande criticised the fightback campaign by some leaders within the ANC, allegedly plotting to oust Ramaphosa.

He said his party had warned against the tendency and “we even pointed out where this fight could possibly be emanating from”.

He continued: “As the SACP we are, therefore, not surprised at all about political plots as we have already warned about these. This fightback campaign has also been accompanied by some of the most regressive and reactionary tendencies that should not be allowed to find space in our movement, like tribalism, black chauvinism and racist slurs.”

The fightback was carried out under the pretext of advancing “radical economic transformation”.

Nzimande said: “This false version of radical economic transformation is synonymous with a campaign to defend the parasitic capturers and those complicit in their corrupt deeds. As the SACP and as the working class as a whole, we must refuse to be intimidated on these matters.”

He said the fightback campaign was essentially not only directed at Ramaphosa or an ANC trying to renew and cleanse itself but was, in essence, an attack on the working class, the poor and all South Africans who would like to see progress and movement.

“Defeating this reactionary fightback is an essential part of defending the gains of the first phase of the national democratic revolution,” he said.

Nzimande said the parasitic networks around the state capture must be dismantled and the working class must never allow the scourge to happen again.

The SACP supported the commission that is probing state capture and urged it must finish its task timeously to save the country’s scarce monetary resources.

“The commission must assist us through its findings and recommendations to deal with both the rot that has occurred and put in place appropriate legislative and other measures to tackle private and corporate state capture,” Nzimande said.

Those responsible for waging the fightback campaign must be isolated, he said.

“We need to properly characterise those who fight back.”

He echoed the call by the party and the left, including Cosatu, to reconfigure the ANC-led tripartite alliance. Although the ANC was the leader of the alliance, all the major decisions could not be taken by the ANC alone.

“We therefore need to reconfigure the alliance … at all levels,” Nzimande said.

He warned workers to interrogate what impact the fourth industrial revolution would have on the future.

“We have to grapple with this reality,” he said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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