Durban – President Jacob Zuma and Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa have come under fire from the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA), which accused them of belittling the South African Communist Party at the weekend.
Zuma has been accused of calling the current SACP leaders Amakhomanisana – which translates to “ineffective communists” – when he delivered a speech at the funeral of struggle and SACP stalwart Riot Mkhwanazi in Empangeni at the weekend.
YCLSA deputy national secretary Isaac Mangena had also expressed anger at Mthethwa for asking the ANC Youth League to challenge the YCLSA.
Mthethwa was delivering a political lecture at the Durban City Hall at the weekend when he reacted to the YCLSA’s call for its mother body to consider breaking away from the tripartite alliance and contest the 2019 election alone.
Mangena said Zuma had told thousands of people at the funeral that the current SACP were “ineffective communists”, unlike those who led during the struggle.
SACP and Cosatu leaders also complained that they were not given a platform to pay tribute at the funeral.
“Nathi is not different from his father Jacob Zuma, who insulted the SACP leadership. He is calling the leadership of the SACP Amakhomanisana.
“The very same (SACP) leadership that rescued him from a political dustbin,” said Mangena.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa denied that Zuma made the utterances, but Mangena said he was watching the SABC news and heard Zuma.
“He said he even had a video clip, which he posted on Facebook. Mangena said Zuma was ungrateful towards the SACP.
“Little did we know that after lots of night vigils and rallies defending the same man who has the audacity today to say that South Africa no longer has true communists.
“Some may not be able to say it openly that Jacob Zuma is a factionalist of note, who doesn’t only side with faction but creates a faction himself,” he said.
Mangena said the YCLSA would continue to lobby for its mother body to contest the upcoming elections alone.
He said that to be in the current ANC leadership “you should be identified and defined by opulence and conspicuous consumption”.
Mangena said Mthethwa, the former police minister, lacked the moral high ground because he had failed to take responsibility for the Marikana massacre of August 2012, which he said had cost the ANC votes.
Kodwa denied that Zuma had belittled SACP leaders.
“I was there. He did not say that,” he said.
Kodwa said the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the Marikana massacre, had cleared Mthethwa of any wrongdoing.