Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Gupta parasitic threat – Nxesi
THE GREATEST immediate threat to the gains of South Africa’s national democratic revolution was posed by the “Gupta parasitic- patronage network”, South African Communist Party (SACP) deputy national chairperson Thulas Nxesi said yesterday.
“Our strategic enemy in the struggle for transformation and socialism has always been, and remains, monopoly capital regardless of any racial manifestation. Whether that monopoly capital is green, white, yellow, or whatever.
“But the greatest immediate threat to the gains of the national democratic revolution comes from this Gupta parasitic patronage network,” Nxesi said, addressing the National Union of Mineworkers’ central committee meeting in Pretoria.
Nxesi said the SACP had identified particular inter-related features of the Gupta patronage network. “The accelerated rent-seeking based on state capture – with key state corporations, among them Eskom, Transnet, SAA and Denel and their billions of rand being the principal target.
“The very lucky (Gupta) family has entered all these parastatals and is taking billions. Then we’re told there’s no problem,” said Nxesi.
“The emergence of a parallel shadow state, what some have described as a silent coup. It is what the SA Council of Churches calls a Mafia state – with key policy and deployment decisions being taken outside the constitutional structures of government and of the ANC governing party.”
Nxesi further bemoaned the “growing authoritarianism and inclinations to presidential “diktat” and a growing intimidation directed at those who dared raise concerns.
“The illegal role of a paramilitary force linked to elements within the MK Veterans Association is one such instance, with physical threats against our second deputy general secretary, Solly Mapaila. These patterns are repeated, often more violently at the grassroots level, with a surge of political assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal. Make no mistake, comrades, this is going to be a tough battle,” said Nxesi.
Nxesi said in the wake of growing public exposure of ongoing alleged misdeeds, “the parasitic patronage faction” had also upped the ante in creating their diversionary populist platforms. – ANA