Mireille de Villiers | National 5.5.2015 06.00 pm
Senzeni Zokwana and Bonakele Majuba. Pic: Lowvelder
KANYAMAZANE – The ANC’s alliance partners have expressed their unconditional support for the party in the 2016 municipal elections.
The community hall, where the South African Communist Party (SACP) celebrated the legacy of Chris Hani, was packed last week as representatives of the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA), the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the ANC addressed the gathering to mark the 22nd anniversary of the death of the late general secretary, Lowvelder reported.
Yet allusions to “third terms” were met with jeers from the crowd. Mpumalanga provincial secretary of the SACP, Bonakele Majuba, said it was not against incumbent ANC provincial chairperson David Mabuza serving a third term. He said the objection was against him campaigning for it.
“Members should be raising it. It creates two centres of power, like when [former president Thabo] Mbeki sought a third term in Polokwane. Constitutionally, he can’t be premier again.”
Majuba said Hani still gave people courage, as he had said things that made him unpopular. “We support the ANC; we are members. But so far I don’t think he is leading as a uniting force.”
The meeting was peaceful this time round after supporters of the ANC and SACP clashed violently during the latter’s previous Joe Slovo memorial lecture in KaNyamazane in January. Since then both Mabuza and Majuba have admitted publicly they were not seeing eye to eye. Majuba did not speak on Sunday, aside from welcoming the guests, stepping aside for the national leadership to address the lecture.
Alliance partners also spoke. Chris Mashego, regional secretary of Sanco’s Ehlanzeni region, said they recognised the ANC as the leader in the alliance and would support the party unconditionally in next year’s elections.
“We cannot close our eyes to the reality that in Mpumalanga, the state of the alliance is in tatters,” he added. “That is the reality. Now if these contradictions are not properly managed, they will drag us down. The cause of these are a few individuals, but I won’t dwell much on that. However, what I want to say is that the state of the alliance in the province is an alliance on paper. It is not as organic as it is supposed to be. And that needs to be corrected.”
The ANC’s MP Siposezwe Masango requested that, “where you have tensions like you have in Mpumalanga, they must expediently be attended to by national and provincial leadership”.
But as the keynote speaker, national SACP chairperson and Minister of Agriculture Senzeni Zokwana had the last word, and he called for members to be disciplined, like Hani was. “We must never part like dogs. It is not the sound you make that makes you heard, it is the reasoning behind it.”
He added: “Hamba when your second term has come to an end. If they call you a dog (but you are) without a tail, it is wrong to be angry when you know you are not.”
– Caxton News Service