Nivashni Nair | 01 February, 2016 00:17
FUNERAL: Hundreds of SACP supporters attended the funeral of ANC activist Phillip Dlamini at Fredville in Inchanga, near Durban, yesterday. Dlamini was gunned down at an SACP meeting last week
Image by: RAJESH JANTILAL
Attempts to hide cracks in the ANC-SACP alliance in KwaZulu-Natal failed yesterday when SA Communist Party supporters booed the ruling party's Sipho Gcabashe at a funeral in Inchanga.
Tensions had been running high in the area, west of Durban, since 68-year-old Phillip Dlamini was shot dead during an SACP meeting at a sports ground last week.
Local SACP members claim the attack was sanctioned by members of the local ANC branch's executive committee, whom they say want to marginalise communists in the area.
The provincial ANC leadership was absent at Dlamini's funeral and the party representative expected to read a message of condolence was not named in the programme.
Gcabashe, a member of the ANC's provincial executive committee, was booed when he began to pay his respects.
Durban deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala had to step in to stop the booing and singing.
But the booing continued, forcing SACP provincial chairman and Durban mayor James Nxumalo - who comes from the area - to urge SACP supporters to allow Gcabashe to speak.
SACP deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila, told that attending the funeral that he had raised the Inchanga killings with President Jacob Zuma.
Cosatu's Edwin Mkhize said it was saddening that the "leadership" had not found time to deal with the conflict.
In Limpopo, the SACP accused the ANC of disrupting a meeting at Turfloop, near Polokwane, on Saturday.
It charged that the meeting, to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the death of struggle hero Joe Slovo, was disrupted by "a bunch of thugs trucked in by the ANC".
The party said that the group arrived in a mini-truck, sang anti-SACP songs and became unruly.
The group then allegedly collapsed the marquee in which the meeting was being held, disconnected the power supply and switched off the sound system.
The police were called to the scene, the SACP said.
The party said it would lay charges of public violence against the "concerned ANC branch chairperson and his troops".
"The incident that occurred at Turfloop is not an isolated occurrence. It is part of emerging anti-communist attacks happening throughout the country, especially in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
"The objective of these attacks is to scuttle the unity of the ANC-SACP alliance and disrupt the national democratic revolution and the struggle for socialism," the SACP said.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/02/01/SACP-supporters-boo-provincial-ANC-leader#