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18 April 2016 at 08:44am
By: MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA
Durban - The difference of opinion in the Tripartite Alliance over religious leaders’ calls for President Jacob Zuma to resign – following the Constitutional Court judgment – was laid bare when the SACP and Cosatu shared a stage in Durban on Sunday.
Discussing the calls, the leaders of the SACP and Cosatu openly differed on the subject while addressing shop stewards at City Hall.
SACP provincial secretary, Themba Mthembu, said the religious leaders should be listened to. “We must not attack the religious leaders. We should open our eyes,” he said.
But, Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini warned that the clergy needed to tread carefully on political matters.
“They should pray for us, guide us and provide leadership. They should not enter politics. Once that happens, there will be an equal response,” Dlamini said.
Their comments come almost a week after the ANC Women’s League provincial treasurer, Barbara Thompson, warned the route being taken by religious leaders was “dangerous”.
Thompson said the religious leaders were compromising their religion and acted against the ethos of forgiveness.
Speaking to the media after Sunday's meeting, Mthembu said there was a need to listen to civil society as the ANC had promised to engage its branches and other sectors of society.
“We are saying we must not open other battle fronts. The ones we have is enough. We need to bring all sectors to a common understanding. Opposing each other will not help,” he insisted.
Earlier, Mthembu likened what had befallen the ANC to the repeat of an era when SACP and Umkhonto we Sizwe leader, Chris Hani, wrote a memorandum on state of affairs in the ANC in exile, only to be sentenced to death – and saved by then ANC president Oliver Tambo.
“Right now, whether you like it or not, we are a nation in distress. We need a Hani to raise issues that happen in the movement.
“We need Oliver Tambo to address those issues,” he said, in apparent reference to the Morogoro conference in April 1969 that tackled internal issues raised by Hani and others at the time.
Mthembu also said the big problem facing the ANC-led movement was the “demise of democracy”.
“There is only one tool as the working class we can use: the power of democracy.”
However, Mthembu said the SACP had decided to leave it up to the ANC to deal with the issues arising from the Constitutional Court.In defence of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Mthembu also warned against use of numbers in order to trample on ethics and morality.
He said the Gupta saga was part of a fight between established and emerging capitalists over a turf. “We are not supposed to be close to them. These are our enemies. They are equally dangerous and reinforce each other against the working class.”
Dlamini said those calling for removal of Zuma were calling for the fall of the ANC.
He was convinced the jury was out on the ANC and the calls by civil society should be watched.
“The plethora of calls by individuals and organisations literally say ANC must take a rope and hang itself on the tree and kill itself.
“We will not support any call for suicide,” Dlamini said.
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/tripartite-alliance-differences-laid-bare-2010849