Knives out for Blade

Communists want their boss to be full-time on the job

● The knives are out for SACP boss Blade Nzimande. There are new calls for the job of general secretary to be made a full-time one.

The Sunday Times can reveal that five provinces at the party’s special national congress starting tomorrow will push for Nzimande to choose between leading the party or being higher education minister. It’s seen as a strategy by Nzimande’s opponents to again try to remove him as leader and replace him with the first deputy, Solly Mapaila.

The debate started in 2010 after Nzimande was appointed to Jacob Zuma’s cabinet. It was led by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, which was later expelled from Cosatu.

The SACP gathering this week was meant to be a mid-term review of policies and evaluation of implementation since 2017, the last congress. The party’s stance on contesting elections was meant to dominate discussions, but this issue may now be overshadowed by the debate on Nzimande.

At the 2017 congress, there was an expectation in some quarters that Nzimande would vacate the post because of ill-health and that Mapaila would take over. But Nzimande is said to have changed his mind.

Party insiders have argued that the communists have become toothless on issues such as land and state-owned entities because Nzimande was preoccupied with his government role.

Nzimande has led the SACP since 1998 and was re-elected in 2017.

The SACP provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal, Themba Mthembu, said the debate was expected to be raised this week.

“This is a discussion that is happening and there are some who believe that the general secretary must be full-time. It will be discussed at the congress and consensus will be reached,” Mthembu said.

He said there were people dissatisfied with the direction the party was taking and who had been calling for the special congress to be turned into an elective one.

“There are some angry people who are calling for an election but that proposal will have to be put up for debate,” Mthembu said.

He acknowledged some believed the general secretary must lead the party full-time, but he would not say where he stood.

Mthembu said the party in KwaZulu-Natal wanted the SACP to be aggressive in its antiprivatisation campaign and to strongly oppose the contentious Traditional and Khoi San Leadership Bill that President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law.

The push for Nzimande to give up his cabinet post seems to emanate from the SACP in the Western Cape.

It believes that for the SACP to have a fighting chance to contest local government elections or be “taken seriously”, it needs a leader who is committed and present in the organisation.

The SACP Western Cape provincial secretary, Benson Ngqentsu, said: “I can confirm that the issue … will be part of a broader discussion within the context of organisational renewal and redesign of our part as an independent fighting vanguard party.”

A party leader who did not want to be named said the debate was a proxy fight for those who were dissatisfied with Nzimande’s leadership.

“I think this is the way Blade [Nzimande] is told that his time is almost up,” the insider said.

Mapaila came to Nzimande’s defence, saying the proposal was misguided and short-sighted.

“You do not do a policy to punish an individual. It would be a wrong policy. Judge an individual if he has led by example in the position that he has. And in this [instance] I can say he had and still is,” said Mapaila.

“From the time of former president Jacob Zuma, who said Zuma must go? It was Comrade Blade, in his words. How many other central committee members have said it in public?

“You cannot do things to punish an individual. We reject that, as part of the collective of course.”

Mapaila said Nzimande had a better record than most of the SACP central committee members in terms of being available for party events and meetings.

“Therefore you cannot say you are faulting him for not doing his job because that would be incorrect, disingenuous and at best mischievous because it will be based on absolute lies.”

Mapaila said he hoped “the best ideas” on the matter would prevail at the special congress.