The SACP has backed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to PhalaPhala farmgate scandal, describing the revelations by ex-spy boss Arthur Fraser as an attempt to weaken the ANC, and influence the outcome of its upcoming national conference.
Outgoing SACP general secretary Dr. Blade Nzimande delivering his political report at the organisation’s national congress at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni, railed against former State Security Agency director-general Fraser’s decision to lay charges against Ramaphosa for not reporting a 2020 robbery in his Limpopo farm in which millions of US dollars were stolen.
”Whilst as the SACP we fully welcome the commitment by Ramaphosa to co-operate with law enforcement authorities in investigating the full circumstances of the robbery that allegedly took place in his farm, we are acutely aware that the manner in which this matter was raised had other motives and agendas that had nothing to do with a commitment to fight crime and corruption,” Nzimande said.
The higher education, science and technology minister said it was clear that some individuals, others from within the ANC, had gotten into the habit of using their state positions, past or present, for purposes of pursuing factional agendas.
”The timing and manner in which this matter was raised has all the hallmarks of pursuing a counter-revolutionary and divisive intentions aimed at weakening the ANC and its leadership of the government, while at the same time seeking to influence who must be elected at the next national conference of the ANC (in December),” Nzimande added.
He said the SACP must forge maximum possible unity to strengthen the genuine fight against crime and corruption, and simultaneously intensify the struggle to fight such agendas to the finish.
”We need to unite the alliance and all progressive forces to defend the gains made by our revolution and provide principled leadership to confront the challenges facing the revolution,” Nzimande said.
According to Nzimande, who has been SACP general secretary since 1998, the organisation should focus on building a powerful, socialist movement of workers and the poor.
”The movement should neither tail behind nor should it be anti-ANC – but it should certainly be outspoken against corrupt parasitism and against the neo-liberal hegemony that prevails within the ANC/ANC-led government,” he said.
However, Nzimande said this socialist movement is not to rescue the ANC simply for its own sake and not to cultivate a false unity regardless of its programmatic character.
Saturday Star