Big issues on table for SACP indaba

CORRUPTION, state capture, factionalism within the ANC-led tripartite alliance and the SACP’s call for South Africa to ditch capitalism for socialism will be some of the issues tackled in East London this weekend.

SA Communist Party second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila is expected to address the party’s Eastern Cape provincial council in Duncan Village today and tomorrow.

Mapaila, a vocal critic of the Gupta family and a staunch supporter of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas, is expected to come out guns blazing when he takes to the podium to talk about corruption, factionalism, socialism and state capture.

With the SACP believing that some of its national leaders like general secretary Blade Nzimande have been personally targeted as the war of words between the communists and some ANC leaders continues, Mapaila is likely to go for the jugular and lay into detractors of the SACP.

He was among the first leaders earlier this year to call on the ANC to recall President Jacob Zuma after news of the Guptas allegedly having undue influence on him and how cabinet ministers were chosen.

Mapaila has also spoken up against the so-called premier league – the grouping of Free State, Mpumalanga and North West premiers said to be campaigning for positions at the ANC’s national elective conference in December next year.

SACP provincial spokesman Siyabonga Mdodi described this weekend’s gathering as an important platform where the party would reflect on many issues.

“This is important for our party given the challenges facing the South African revolution and the inability of the ANC-led movement to rise to the occasion because of the negative tendencies of rent seeking, corruption and blatant factionalism.

“The provincial council is a platform to prepare our party for any eventuality given the class battles under way in our country and those ahead as factionalists get more desperate and vicious,” he said this week.

Mdodi said yesterday the provincial council would essentially be used to reflect on the party’s 10 years from 2007 to next year.