/ 2 December 2012

Blade hopes Mangaung helps to restore ANC

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.

"We believe that the Mangaung conference can and must mark a further step in restoring the ANC to its traditions of revolutionary discipline, non-racialism and the condemnation of self-seeking factionalism," Nzimande told reporters after the South African Communist Party's central committee meeting on the East Rand on Sunday.

"We would like to see a leadership that is committed to driven radical transformation. We do not want a leadership of tenderpreneurs, and we are unapologetic about that." 

Nzimande said the SACP would not interfere in the debate surrounding the leadership of the African National Congress.

"The SACP has maintained a principled position of non-interference in the ANC's internal electoral processes," he said. "This is not to say we are disinterested observers."

Nzimande said the SACP would accept the leadership that emerged from Mangaung in December. "It [the leadership] is out of our hands as the SACP, but we are very hopeful ANC delegates are smart enough and are political enough to actually decide on that leadership," he said.

"We do not want a leadership that are lackeys of imperialists. We want a leadership that is committed to the alliance."

Nzimande said the SACP had no problem with having a businessman, like ANC national executive committee member Cyril Ramaphosa, in the top six of the ANC.

"The day the ANC changes and becomes a party that serves the interests of business, then we as the SACP will have a problem," he said.

"There is nothing wrong with the ANC electing from its own members, the issue is its orientation [as a party]."

He said it was "unfortunate" that the media focused only on the leadership of the ANC, and not on the policies which would be discussed in Mangaung. – Sapa