BALDWIN NDABA
Johannesburg - The SACP has vowed to support President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring to book those who were responsible for state capture in the country. The party also committed to unite and renew the ANC by opposing acts of a factional grouping within the ANC who want to stop the prosecution of those "who allowed the Guptas to steal South Africa's wealth".
This was a pledge made by the outgoing SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande ahead of his party's 15th national congress currently under way at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre. According to Nzimande, the national congress would analyse the reasons which led to state capture.
"It is going to be a detailed analysis. If we don't do a proper analysis and come out with a plan to deal with it, we will likely have a similar situation in the future," Nzimande said.
He told the media that his party was the first organisation in the country to expose state capture, saying this was before it became fashionable for other parties to do so.
Detailing his role in the fight against state capture during former president Jacob Zuma's tenure, Nzimande said: "The SACP delegated me to talk to several cabinet ministers. I asked them what the Guptas are doing here. Who brought them here? State capture was a shameful period in the history of South Africa."
In his address, he told the media that his party supported Zuma after the ANC's Polokwane elective conference in 2007 until his first term tenure as president of the country. Nzimande said Zuma, during his early presidency, invested R1 trillion in education and health but his party questioned Zuma for allowing the "Guptas to steal the wealth" of the country.
According to Nzimande, he hopes that the national congress would support them in their bid to assist to unite and renew the ANC. He said state capture happened right under the noses of the trade union federation in government but insisted that the Guptas had massive support from certain ANC bigwigs.
Nzimande also warned that the rising unemployment among young people, rising fuel and food crisis was a "ticking time bomb" in the country.
He also confirmed that he would be stepping down as general secretary, but did not rule out the possibility of serving in another position, if delegates so wished.