New Age2.png Gwede Mantashe responds to Solly Mapaila's attacks SACP 'must self-correct' Ricky Naidoo, Bonolo Selebano and Clive Ndou, The New Age, Johannesburg, 3 June 2016 Tensions between the ANC and its alliance partner the South African Communist Party (SACP) are at boiling point. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe yesterday described comments made by SACP second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila at a media briefing as "opportunistic". Mantashe told The New Age yesterday that Mapaila's reaction to the ANC national executive committee's (NEC's) decision to close its investigation into state capture were the utterances of an "angry person". "The party (SACP) had an opportunity to participate in the investigation but they chose not to. It was only after the NEC decision was announced that they approached me to make a submission. This was an after the fact reaction," Mantashe said. He said that Mapaila's latest attack was more about the upcoming local government elections than the probe into state capture. Going it alone "The SACP has registered its own candidates to contest the elections in the Eastern Cape's Alfred Nzo district municipality. They went against our advice and refused to cooperate," Mantashe said. He insisted that the anger displayed by Mapaila was "not something that the ANC can manage". "I have no problem with people criticising ANC processes. However, we do have a problem when such criticism is used to advance factionalism. There is a faction in the party that is angry and bent on causing divisions in our alliance," Mantashe said. When quizzed on whether it was time for the SACP to go it alone, Mantashe said that this was "a matter for the party to debate". "A similar motion was tabled at the party's 2007 congress. This was defeated. It is not too late for the party to self-correct." Mapaila It was reported that Mapaila told a media briefing on Wednesday that the ANC NEC's decision to close the state capture probe was a "whitewash". "The ANC can't come and give us a whitewash report. I'm no longer looking forward to the ANC national executive committee statement but the factional statement coming out from the national executive committee of the ANC. This must be stopped," Mapaila said. Mantashe SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande yesterday moved to defuse the tensions sparked by his deputy. Speaking at the NUM central committee meeting outside Pretoria, Nzimande urged the alliance partners to strengthen their resolve in "defending" the ANC from what he described as a "struggle to weaken the alliance". "There is a huge campaign to drive a wedge in the alliance. People are buying their way into becoming candidates for the local government elections. We must defend the ANC from factionalism. If we don't do that, our revolution is gone," he said. "There is no contradiction in identifying problems and still voting for the ANC. The SACP calls on all workers to vote for the ANC," he said. The SACP in KwaZulu-Natal was also at loggerheads with the ANC over the manner in which Senzo Mchunu was removed as premier. Threats, murders The party's eThekwini region threatened this week to pull out of the ANC's local government election campaign because it was aggrieved about the candidate nomination lists. The tensions in the province were further heightened yesterday after the murder of an SACP member who was due to testify in the murder trial of five ANC members. The five are on trial for the murder of an SACP member in Intshanga, west of Durban. [email protected] From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/03062016/epaperpdf/1.pdf -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
