SACP slams ANC over role in alliance
THE SACP has called for the ANC’s powers to be curtailed over deployment, as the ruling party is accused of having abused its leading role in the alliance.
This comes as the SACP is calling for the reconfiguration of the entire alliance and power dynamics within it.
In its official document, seen by Independent Media, and which has now been given to alliance partners – the ANC, Cosatu and the SA National Civic Organisation – for discussion ahead of the alliance summit in October, the SACP lamented that state and other key public service appointments and deployment decisions were increasingly being made in the interest of driving or defending the rot under former president Jacob Zuma.
“Those decisions were thus made without consultation, let alone with the alliance, which became increasingly marginalised, but also with the ANC itself. Looting was enforced as part of the culture and core agenda of this dominant section of the officialdom.
“Those who were vocal against the capture were dismissed from their appointments,” the party says.
In the document, the SACP is also calling for its leaders and members to have their own list processes ahead of elections instead of being dependent on the ANC list.
The party has often complained that its leaders were being undermined and sidelined in terms of deployment by the ANC at national, provincial and local levels.
“The ANC and the SACP are two primary political formations within the alliance. This requires articulation in a reconfigured alliance. The manner in which the alliance functions, for example in municipal councils and legislative and executive bodies, must give practical expression to the articulation and, equally importantly, to the interests and perspectives of the other alliance partners,” the SACP says.
The party says state power as a whole is too important to be left in the hands of the ANC alone.
“The principle that the SACP is now putting forward, that there must be democratic consensus seeking consultation – before all major policy, deployments and accountability decisions are made – as the cornerstone of a reconfigured alliance functioning as a strategic political centre of the NDR, is crucial,” the party says.
Cosatu and SANCO have expressed support for the SACP’s proposals.