Johannesburg - The SACP has described the sale of Gupta businesses as a brazen attempt by the controversial family to restore banking services, “evade tax responsibilities, and to expatriate yet more ill-gotten wealth”.
On Sunday, the party said the SA Reserve Bank and commercial banks had to block what it called “manoeuvres” by the family "before billions more rand of public resources disappear into Dubai".
SACP general secretary and Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande made the remarks on Sunday during a media briefing following a central committee meeting in Joburg at the weekend.
The meeting was the first to be held after the ANC policy conference and the SACP elective conference in July.
Last week, the Guptas announced the sale of their media "empire", consisting of 24-hour news channel ANN7 and The New Age newspaper, to their ally, Mzwanele Manyi, for R450 million.
This was followed by the sale of their mining company, Tegeta Exploration & Resources, to a Swiss-based company for more than R2 billion.
Nzimande called on the parliamentary state capture inquiry to be expanded to investigate recent claims that the Guptas “pay only a fraction of their taxes”.
Parliamentarians were also suspicious of the sales, saying they suspected the Guptas, who are implicated in serious allegations of state capture, wanted to leave the country.
The SACP was also worried about whether the ANC intends to take disciplinary action against ANC MPs suspected to have voted for President Jacob Zuma’s ousting during the recent no-confidence motion against him in Parliament.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe recently wrote to axed tourism minister and MP Derek Hanekom, saying he should provide reasons why he should not be removed as chair of the ANC national disciplinary committee, following his series of tweets ahead of the motion.
On Saturday, Hanekom hit back, saying he wouldn't be “intimidated by threats and letters” from speaking out against "the rot" within the ANC.
Nzimande added: “It is absolutely unacceptable that egregious ill-discipline, notably by certain ministers, in some cases amounting to treasonable sharing of cabinet information with private parties and for personal profit, is allowed to pass without the mildest rebuke, while others, out of concern for the ANC and the trajectory of our country, and without any personal profit motive, are pursued.”
He said factional application of discipline “is wrong and will simply deepen disunity while encouraging the real miscreants”, and suggested that the MPs targeted should be engaged outside of a disciplinary process.
There was a need for a “more strategic popular front” of working-class and progressive formations to make connection between the struggles against state capture and socio-economic transformation.