POLOKWANE – In spite of the poor audit results of municipalities in Limpopo, the South African Communist Party (SACP) has not lost faith in premier Stanley Mathabatha.
This was according to SACP Limpopo secretary Gilbert Kganyago who spoke at the launch of the SACP’s Red October campaign in Polokwane last Thursday.
He said he was in favour of supporting Mathabatha’s administration, so that the process of rebuilding the image of the province could be sped up. Kganyago said the previous leadership was characterised by the looting of taxpayers’ money rather delivering services to the people. Reclaiming the glory of the province was not one man’s duty, but the collective task of the people of the province, including political parties, he said.
On being asked who the SACP’s candidate would be in the coming premiership race between Mathabatha and public works MEC Dickson Masemola, he said he knew nothing of such a race, but added that Limpopo needed good leaders.
“We have exposed the failures of the capitalist system to address the needs of the overwhelming majority of our working class people who remain poor.
“We are refuting the allegations that senior SACP members are fuelling the Malamulele people in their fight to have their own municipality.
“These allegations are baseless and there is no one in the SACP who is earmarking any top position in that area. The fact that the protests are led by SACP members doesn’t mean we are earmarking a top position.
“We are still going to visit the Malamulele community to embark on Know your Neighbourhood and door-to-door campaigns as well as meet with community structures around service delivery and other pertinent matters of concern. We have made an intervention in the past month towards finding a solution around service delivery problems in the area,” Kganyago said.
Mathabatha said he could not work with fraudsters and corrupt officials. He said he would make sure that people defrauding taxpayers’ money were investigated and arrested. He was working hard with a team of people with good qualifications, skills and determination, to serve the people of Limpopo, he added.
ANC provincial task team chairperson, Falaza Mdaka said ANC national leadership had given the task team only nine months to reclaim the glory of the ANC in Limpopo.
He said they had crushed all factions and now Mathabatha was leading a united ANC.
