Johannesburg - Political ructions between the ANC and SACP in Mpumalanga continued widened this week, with the ruling party accusing the SACP of plotting to unseat Premier David Mabuza.
ANC provincial spokesman Sibusiso Themba said the SACP was using former ANC treasurer Matthews Phosa in a bid to unseat Mabuza, who is ANC chairman in the province.
He said SACP leaders were also abusing the party’s platforms to settle personal political scores with Mabuza, who recently secured support from a majority of ANC structures to stand for a third term as provincial chairman.
The provincial ANC this week reacted strongly to calls by the provincial SACP for Luthuli House to prioritise an investigation into allegations that Mabuza is a former apartheid spy. The Sunday Independent reported earlier this year that Phosa had submitted a report to ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte that alleged Mabuza had spied for the National Party government between 1986 and 1993.
Luthuli House has yet to investigate the claims, pending a broader investigation into the rift between the two alliance partners in the province.
The party has appointed a team of ANC veterans to investigate the tension between the two organisations after differences exploded in violent clashes in January.
The matter is expected to be on the agenda when senior leaders of the SACP’s politburo visit the province this weekend. Says ANC provincial spokesman Sibusiso Themba: “Branches and members of the ANC in the province support Mabuza to serve a third term as the provincial chairperson, but some leaders of the SACP are not happy about that. They want to unseat the provincial chairperson, and are using the former treasurer of the ANC, hence the allegations (being) made about the chairperson.”
According to Themba, some of the SACP leaders who were heading the campaign against Mabuza were disgruntled ANC members whose contracts with the provincial government had not been renewed. “Contracts are renewed based upon your performance, but now they’re using the SACP platforms for their own personal issues,” he said.
The SACP’s provincial structure attacked Mabuza following its provincial executive committee this week, accusing him of entrenching patronage and corruption in the province.
They also accused members of the ANC in Mpumalanga of threatening, through the lyrics of their songs, to kill SACP leaders during their provincial general council last month.
SACP provincial secretary Bonakele Majuba said: “Those (spy allegations) are very serious and must not be allowed to just disappear, so that justice may be served and we can put the matter to rest.“ He added, “It isn’t the leadership of the ANC that is entrenching patronage and corruption in Mpumalanga – it is the chairperson David Mabuza himself.”
It is understood that alliance leaders are concerned about how the ructions in the province may affect the party before the local government elections next year, and that the state of the alliance in the province will be on the agenda when members of the SACP’s politburo descend on the province this week. Themba said they were hopeful that the issues would be resolved before the elections as they had to work together to deliver a “decisive victory” for the ANC.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the report by the veterans into the problem in Mpumalanga would give an indication about the way forward.
“The fact that the ANC has appointed a team to investigate, shows that we are very concerned about what is happening in Mpumalanga, but we cannot investigate these things separately.
“You cannot have the ANC being attacked from the platforms of the SACP, our very own alliance partner. We should wait to hear what the report of the veterans says and take it from there,” Kodwa said.
Both structures are expected to take part in the province’s events this weekend commemorating the death of Chris Hani.
The Sunday Independent