Communists in blistering attack on Zuma

THE SACP has launched a blistering attack on former president Jacob Zuma, accusing him of being at the heart of of a push-back campaign against the new ANC leadership and the fight against corruption.

The party, which held its central committee meeting over the weekend, said the ANC-led alliance’s immediate priority was to roll back and dismantle the networks of parasitic looting of public resources that flourished under “Zuma’s patronage”.

SACP general secretary, Blade Nzimande, said the attempts to fight back the drive against corruption and state capture must not be underestimated, adding that they were linked to Zuma.

“In many ways former president Zuma is at the heart of this counter-revolutionary fight-back, together with a circle of discredited individuals, many themselves facing the likelihood of criminal prosecution. KwaZulu-Natal has become a seed-bed for this counter-revolutionary agenda, but with tentacles spreading into other provinces,” Nzimande said.

Another grouping in KZN has announced plans to form a new political party as it was aggrieved by the treatment of Zuma by the ANC. Zuma has since distanced himself from the grouping.

Nzimande said it was not enough for Zuma to claim that he was not planning to leave the ANC, arguing that he had to openly denounce groupings that organised in his name.

“Zuma must distance himself very strongly from this. It is not enough for him to say ‘I will never leave the ANC but people are continuing doing things in his name’,” he said.

SACP deputy general secretary, Solly Mapaila, was more scathing against Zuma, accusing him of trying to destroy the ANC-led alliance and the ANC of being soft on him by not taking action.

“The ANC must come out much more clearly in this regard so that they don’t just protect him because he is a former leader and he continues to do wrong things via the movement and associating himself with counter revolutionaries.

“We will never accept to lose another general secretary just because of some sense of respecting alliance processes because the ANC can’t discipline Zuma and this group that he is working with,” Mapaila said.

The party has expressed concern over KZN SACP secretary and agriculture and rural development MEC Themba Mthembu’s decision to invite Zuma as a special guest when he delivered his budget vote speech in the provincial legislature.

Mapaila said the SACP did not want to be associated with Zuma and that the party would “fight” him and those around him.

“We can’t associate ourselves with someone who wants to destroy the movement and kill not only the party but its leadership as well,” Mapaila said.

Zuma’s spokesperson Vukile Mathabela said he would first check the utterances by the SACP but had not responded by the time of going to print.