Young Reds lash out

Young Communist League national deputy secretary Isaac Luthuli. File picture: Jeffrey Abrahams

Young Communist League national deputy secretary Isaac Luthuli. File picture: Jeffrey Abrahams

Published Jun 6, 2016

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Durban - Corruption in the country has been “legalised and institutionalised” under President Jacob Zuma’s tumultuous administration.

Young Communist League national deputy secretary Isaac Luthuli said this emanated from the deep-seated divisions plaguing the tripartite alliance of the ANC, Cosatu and SACP. The league is the youth branch of the SACP.

Luthuli was addressing the league’s 94th anniversary rally in Newlands West on Sunday.

The alliance, he said, had been “captured (led by Zuma) by a faction that purported to fully represent the organisation. Corruption has been legalised. It has been institutionalised, as a result”. He said government institutions were awarding contracts to cronies, citing Zuma’s friendship with the Gupta brothers.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe last week dropped an investigation into the alleged “state capture”, saying only one of eight people who had come forward with information about the Guptas had been willing to make written submissions. The move sparked the ire of the SACP, which labelled Mantashe’s report a “whitewash”.

Luthuli said: “You can’t give your friends a contract to build houses - they collapse in less than three months - but you give that same company to build other houses. Is that not corruption?” This received applause and a chorus of “yes”.

Questioning the recent removal of Senzo Mchunu as KZN premier, Luthuli argued that the province had been “stable” and therefore the recall was unnecessary as he had done “nothing wrong”. Luthuli labelled newly elected Premier Willies Mchunu a “political token”.

“The Bible says if you have wronged and then ask for forgiveness, you are forgiven. The president of the country - according to him - was not aware of the level of money used to upgrade security features in Nkandla,” he said. “He came back and said he had established that, indeed, taxpayers’ money was abused and then said: I therefore ask for forgiveness.’ What did you do? You forgave him,” he said.

Whether Zuma had been forgiven democratically “or through dictatorship” was a question for another day, he said.

Juxtaposing Zuma’s Nkandla debacle with Senzo Mchunu’s unceremonious removal, he asked why the latter had been forced to resign.

“What wrong did he do to deserve to be fired? Willies is a member of the SACP CEC (central executive committee); he has always been a member of the party and a unionist. We are very proud of his political credentials.”

He said the ANC’s excuse of appointing Willies Mchunu to the post of premier because of seniority was “crèche gossip. Don’t play with us...

Luthuli also lambasted the “unfair and undemocratic” process through which local government candidates had been selected. As a result, he said, those sidelined were reluctant to campaign for the party in the coming elections.

The Mercury

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