Zikalala slams alliance bosses

SACP and Cosatu leaders have received a lashing from Sihle Zikalala. Picture: Motshwrai Mofokeng

SACP and Cosatu leaders have received a lashing from Sihle Zikalala. Picture: Motshwrai Mofokeng

Published Nov 11, 2015

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Durban - SACP and Cosatu leaders have received a lashing from the new ANC provincial chairman, Sihle Zikalala, for imposing themselves on the leadership of the ruling party.

The ANC’s criticism of its alliance partners is contained in a report which Zikalala gave before he stepped down as the provincial secretary.

He delivered the report at a closed session of the party’s provincial conference in Pietermaritzburg at the weekend.

“There is absolutely everything wrong with comrades who use both the SACP and Cosatu as their lobby groups for leadership positions in the ANC,” read Zikalala’s report.

The report, which was leaked to The Mercury, showed yet again the deepening divisions between the ANC and its tripartite alliance partners over leadership positions in the province.

The eThekwini region had been cited in the report as an area where there had been major fallout within the alliance. Zikalala said the divisions were “disturbing developments” that required the attention of the conference.

The report revealed that Cosatu had described the decision by the ANC’s national executive committee to nullify the eThekwini regional conference as an “emotional and haphazard, thumb-sucked decision”. The federation had also said that the provincial leadership had been put under pressure to accept the decision.

“Cosatu also posed a question: ‘Is being a communist and member of the ANC a criminal offence?’” read the report.

It quoted the SACP as saying: “Whenever a member of the SACP emerges to prominence in the ranks of the ANC, there seem to be some serious objections.”

Zikalala said the ANC had avoided responding to the attacks publicly to “reserve our revolution integrity as a movement”.

“This tendency reflects a calamitous retreat from revolutionary conduct expected of our alliance partners and this cannot go unchallenged. The SACP can never act in a way that tarnishes the image of the ANC,” the report read.

SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said Zikalala had used the wrong platform to discuss the issue. He said he should have taken the matter to the alliance secretariat for alliance partners to discuss it. “These are mere allegations, and we consider them reckless … This is someone displaying his emotions,” he said.

The SACP had been backing its provincial chairman, mayor James Nxumalo, to be elected chairman of the ruling party in eThekwini, the position which he won when the conference first sat earlier this year. A week after Nxumalo and his regional executive committee team had occupied the regional office, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe nullified the decision. This was after supporters of Nxumalo’s competitor, eThekwini councillor Zandile Gumede, had protested against the outcome as unfair. The conference had since been postponed several times owing to procedural irregularities.

All 103 branches had since been told to start afresh their nominations for a rerun, which the province had said would sit before the end of the month.

Both Nxumalo and Gumede had hoped that the outcome of the provincial conference would help their cause to win the eThekwini region. After Zikalala’s victory, Gumede told The Mercury that path to victory in Durban was clear for her.

The ANC’s national executive committee member sent to the province, Joe Phaahla, said now the committee would be able to deal with eThekwini’s problems “decisively”.

The Mercury

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