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Johannesburg - The South African Communist Party in Mpumalanga has warned that tripartite alliance disunity and the unresolved spy allegations against Premier David Mabuza could affect the ANC’s 2016 municipal elections campaign.
In a statement after its provincial executive committee meeting this weekend, the SACP said these matters should be resolved speedily because they affected the morale of members.
The party wants the ANC’s secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, to release a task team report into an investigation into the bloody fight between SACP and ANC members in KaNyamazane township in January.
ANC members closed the gate to a hall where the SACP had planned to hold a memorial lecture in honour of its stalwart, Joe Slovo, and the former speaker of Mbombela council, Jimmy Mohlala, who was assassinated while investigating tender corruption in the R1.2 billion Mbombela Stadium construction in 2009.
The Ehlanzeni ANC regional executive committee did not want Mathews Phosa – the former Mpumalanga premier and ANC treasurer-general – to address the lecture because he had admitted that he gave an intelligence report to the ANC’s national office with allegations that Mabuza was a spy for the apartheid government.
The report alleged that Mabuza, along with former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and security police officer Butana Nofomela, spied on top ANC officials – Phosa, President Jacob Zuma, Albertina Sisulu and Angie Motshekga.
“The delay of dealing with all these challenges affecting the unity of the alliance in the province will have a negative impact on our election campaign. These problems have affected the morale of comrades as we prepare for the elections campaign,” said SACP provincial secretary, Bonakele Majuba.
“Hooligans who disrupted the lecture must be brought to book as promised by the ANC. There have been no arrests or disciplinary processes instituted on the hooligans who masqueraded with ANC regalia to date,” he added.
Majuba said the party was deeply concerned by the ANC’s national leadership silence on the spy allegations, which “dented” the local government elections campaign.
“[Mabuza] called on President Jacob Zuma to institute an investigation on this issue and we believe this will assist us in clearing suspicions. We face a difficult local government campaign due to the high level of patronage, institutionalised factionalism and the spy allegations. We call on the national secretariat to deal with the matter in order to consolidate our campaign for overwhelming electoral victory in the 2016 local government elections,” said Majuba.
Provincial ANC secretary, Lucky Ndinisa, said the SACP and all other alliance partners, including Cosatu and the South African National Civic Organisation, would have to work with the ANC because the elections would be highly contested.
“We have to approach the elections as a formidable force and our assessment is that they will be tight. It is our understanding that the SACP will work with us,” said Ndinisa.
He said the task team should be given time to investigate the KaNyamazane violence as it was difficult matter due to the internal friction between the SACP and ANC in the province.
