Johannesburg – The SA Communist Party (SACP) has blamed the lack of principled unity and cohesion for the ANC’s poor performance in last month’s local government elections.
Following the first plenary of the SACP’s central committee after the municipal polls, its general secretary Dr. Blade Nzimande on Sunday said factionalism, infighting for positions, gatekeeping, and the continuing marginalisation of alliance partners by some structures badly affected the ANC’s performance.
”The ANC’s poor electoral performance was directly connected also to the lack of principled unity and cohesion,” he said.
Nzimande said the emergence of a parasitic petty bourgeoisie preying on municipal budgets to pursue their private wealth accumulation agendas compounded the arrogant attitude.
”The parasitic petty bourgeoisie established connections with corrupt officials mainly, but not only, in supply chain management or tender processes. Some of these elements are within our own broad movement,” he said.
According to Nzimande, similar tendencies exist in upper spheres of the government and state.
”In renewing the ANC, we must tackle these tendencies and disrupt the corrupt connections between public sector officials and the parasitic and bureaucratic bourgeoisie.
This is a key task facing the SACP, the working-class and progressive sections of our movement and broad society,” he added.
Nzimande said the ANC needed to renew itself organisationally and politically, unify and ensure that the governments it led at all levels served the people diligently and capably.
He warned that the ANC’s renewal could not just be a moralistic issue but had to be based on a programme, including rejecting neoliberalism and putting people before profits.
Nzimande said it was imperative to strengthen organising the working-class and other progressive forces to ensure that the government at all levels served the people wholeheartedly and delivered quality services.
”Instead of bureaucratic opposition, a mass-based mobilisation to hold the government to account is crucial to be led from within the alliance. The SACP will actively play that role,” he promised.
Political Bureau