/* Written 8:27 AM Dec 24, 1997 by [EMAIL PROTECTED] in labr.party */
New ANC Leader Predicts Split With South African Communist Party
JOHANNESBURG (December 19, 1997 Agence France-Presse) -
South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who took the helm of
the ruling ANC earlier this week, predicted Friday a future split
between the governing party and its Communist and labor union
allies.
In a half-hour interview with state-owned SABC television,
Mbeki said he could "foresee a day" when the ANC's main allies,
the Marxist-based South African Communist Party and the powerful
COSATU labor federation, end their cooperative links with the
governing party.
The so-called tripartite alliance between the three former
liberation movements was formed to fight the former
white-minority regime, which gave way to Mandela's ANC-led
government in the historic 1994 all-race elections.
"The fundamental thing that brought everyone into the ANC
was the goal that we must end the system of racial domination in
the country, and we must fight for a non-racial democracy," Mbeki
said.
He added that when that goal has been achieved, the movement
will probably be disbanded.
"When this racial issue ceases to be such a dominant feature
of South African life ... yes, indeed I would imagine that people
might very well say that what brought us all together into this
broad (movement) has been achieved," Mbeki said.
He declined, however, to speculate when that split would
occur.
"When would it be that as South Africans this great dominant
issue of racial disparity... has gone?" Mbeki said. "It will
come, it has to come. But when, I cannot be in a position to
tell."
The ANC fought its liberation struggle against the former
apartheid regime with the aid of the socialist-leaning COSATU,
(Congress of South African Trade Union), movement and the
Communist Party.
Many top members of the current ANC government, including
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Jay Naidoo (COSATU) and
Transport Minister Mac Maharaj (Communist Party), Trade Minister
Alec Erwin (Communist Party) were, or still are, linked to the
ANC's allies.
Many observers say Mbeki, who is seen as a
politically-conservative market capitalist, is faced with the
daunting challenge of appeasing a broad range supporters from
across the political spectrum.
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ANC Homepage: http://www.anc.org.za/
SACP Homepage: http://www.sacp.org/za/
