The M&G's Phillip de Wet takes us through the possible consequences of the DA's violent march to Cosatu House.
We will march on the homes of Democratic Alliance leaders in the Western Cape, the SACP in the province warned on Sunday.
This would be the response should the DA persist with its plans to march on the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg, SA Communist Party provincial secretary Khaya Magaxa said.
“As soon as they go with such a dirty march, they will get a response from us,” he told reporters in Bellville, Cape Town.
Magaxa was speaking at the end of a two-day meeting of the SACP's provincial executive, aimed at thrashing out a plan for the coming national and provincial elections.
The DA is awaiting permission for 6000 of its members to march through the Johannesburg city centre to Luthuli House on February 4.
Such a march would be a “declaration of war against the ANC”, Magaxa said.
The SACP is a member, together with trade union federation Cosatu, of the Tripartite Alliance, and wields strong influence in the ruling party, with several of its senior members serving in President Jacob Zuma's Cabinet.
Election gimmick
Magaxa described the DA's planned march “a cheap and desperate election gimmick”, and one that would be contested by the SACP in the Western Cape.
“We aim to mobilise progressive forces against the anti-majoritarian DA by embarking on a march to premier Helen Zille's lush residence in Leeuwenhof [the premier's official residence], Cape Town.”
Responding to a question on this, he further said that should the DA go ahead in Johannesburg, the SACP would respond with marches “to all people's homes who are leaders of the DA in our community”.
In this regard, the SACP was ready “to face any consequences”.
The DA plan to march on Luthuli House was a “serious provocation”, and “threatens another party's right to exist”, he said.
According to the party, the SACP has about 10,000 members in the Western Cape.
In a statement issued after its meeting on Sunday, it labeled political rivals the Congress of the People an “offshoot of bourgeoise oligarchs”, and the Economic Freedom Fighters “lumpen misguided youths".
It described the outspoken National Union of Metalworkers of SA, which has broken with the SACP and called for Zuma's resignation, as “politically bankrupt ultra-leftists". –Sapa