ANC chair Gwede Mantashe has been unceremoniously dismissed from the SACP’s central committee (CC), as the two parties clash over next year's local government elections.
The news of Mantashe’s dismissal emerged this week after former ANC president Thabo Mbeki fired a salvo at the Communist Party, warning it against contesting elections separately.
Speaking to the Sunday Times this week, Mantashe confirmed his removal, saying he had no intention of fighting it.
“I received a letter from the SACP seven months ago. They removed me from the central committee because sometimes the CC meetings clash with the national executive committee meetings [of the ANC]. I accepted it, I didn't even argue,” Mantashe said.
He said he will remain an SACP member.
“I'm not an after-freedom communist. I joined in the '80s in Munich. So it's not a compromise position. I'm a member of the Communist Party. I'm the chair of the ANC. I am a communist, and I'm not a communist faction in the ANC. I'm a communist who is a member of the ANC,” he said.
It’s understood that Mantashe was criticised for failing to attend CC meetings in a letter from the SACP general secretary, Solly Mapaila.
Mantashe — a former chair of the SACP — was arguably one of the most senior CC members, having been instrumental in the removal of Mbeki in 2007.
He is the first high-profile member to be expelled from the CC, the SACP’s highest decision-making body between conferences.
Mantashe, together with Blade Nzimande, was among the SACP leaders who led the party with Chris Hani and Joe Slovo.
He was the SACP’s link to the Cosatu unions. In 2007, the SACP lobbied for Mantashe to become the ANC’s secretary-general.
Mantashe’s dismissal is a sign of a bigger feud between the ANC and the SACP. He is among senior party leaders who have denounced the party's decision to contest elections against the ANC, with some warning that this could split the party.
Mbeki said if the SACP campaigned as a party of the NDR, it would be challenging the ANC directly
The future of the ANC-led alliance hangs in the balance, with the ANC having warned the SACP that its decision would have implications for its members and the national democratic revolution (NDR).
ANC head of elections Mdumiseni Ntuli this week presented a document he co-authored with Geraldine Fraser—Moleketi and Lennox Klaas on the reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance, criticising the SACP.
Ntuli said the SACP was misrepresenting history in its discussion documents by arguing that the 1928 Comintern established the alliance, adding that the SACP initially welcomed the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy, which was implemented under the Mbeki presidency.
He said that the SACP was facing a possible fracture, which could see another socialist movement taking shape.
Ntuli argued that the SACP should rather contest strategic municipalities and/or wards to avoid the ANC seeing it as an opponent competing for the same base.
“Will the SACP contest elections as a party of socialism or as a party of the NDR? If the Communist Party contests elections as a party of the NDR, who takes up the responsibility for the socialist revolution in our country?
“Aren’t we going to end up in a situation where a new formation is going to emerge on the far left of the SACP, which will say 'now that the SACP has ceased to see itself as party of socialism it is rather seeing itself as a party of the NDR, with some socialist elements, we must then stand our own and be the vanguard of the working class'.?”
During an ANC webinar in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbeki said if the SACP campaigned as a party of the NDR, it would be challenging the ANC directly, which by definition would mean a confrontation between the two parties.
“As campaigners for the ANC in a situation like that, we would have to say to the people, 'don't vote for this SACP, vote for the ANC if the SACP stands as a party of the NDR'. But if the Communist Party says 'we are going to stand as a party of socialism and we want the population to vote for us in support of the victory of the socialist revolution', the ANC can't object to that.”
Mbeki said the working class was “nowhere near” being ready to fight for the victory of a socialist revolution. “What the Communist Party should do is to prepare the masses of our people and the proletariat.”
He said the reconfiguration posture adopted by the SACP attempted to introduce a new centre, which would replace the ANC.
“We can't agree to that. We can't agree to a situation where the leader of the NDR gets subjected to some entity which is this reconfigured thing,” Mbeki said.
Speaking to the SABC at the SACP's four-day CC meeting on Friday, Mapaila accused the ANC of “arrogance”.
He said the ANC had agreed to a reconfigured alliance in 2019, but was not serious about it, which resulted in the SACP's congress resolution to contest the elections.
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