leaders
SACP Gauteng: RIGHT TO REPLY
Sechaba ka’Nkosi’s article, “SACP split over who will lead” (June 19 to 25) uses the politburo meeting held on June 16 as a basis for so-called disunity.
From our understanding of South African Communist Party procedures, nominations start at branch level, then go to districts and are finalised at provincial level before they are forwarded to the national office.
Members of the politburo and the central committee get guidance from provinces on issues of SACP leadership, and cannot nominate among themselves. What they can do is to develop nomination criteria, check availability of people and possibly brainstorm names for leadership positions.
These discussions are not binding on lower structures, but aimed at providing guidance and leadership. There was no way the politburo could have come up with names of office bearers while nomination processes were still taking place at provincial level.
The article also mischievously claims that our province “is rocked by internal divisions that have left it in disarray”. There is no basis for this statement as we had a very successful biannual provincial congress characterised by open and robust debate and discussion.
You also claim that our “provincial delegation to the congress is expected to sway the conference into electing [Charles] Nqakula to the figurehead position of national chair, and recalling [Blade] Nzimande from Parliament to take over as general secretary”.
This is far from the truth. Here are the facts: on Sunday June 14 a provincial executive committee meeting was held to discuss preparations for the national congress, in particular on the issue of leadership nominations.
On Monday June 15 congress discussed issues on the agenda of our weekly provincial working committee meeting. The main item was on preparations for the joint alliance working committee meeting that afternoon.
In both meetings it was agreed that nominations will be mainly from branches and launched districts. It was also agreed that our provincial office-bearers will officially liaise with other SACP provinces and speak on behalf of our province on all congress matters.
We therefore find it surprising to read that our province has already decided on issues of leadership, when we only began discussions on the matter on June 14.
We do not view any national office-bearers’ positions as ceremonial.
The SACP has long borne the brunt of reports which distort our history, what our positions are on a range of issues and, at times, have adopted ideologically hostile positions.
Journalists and commentators have a right to differ with us, but this must be on the basis of correct information and not speculation. We also do not expect to get praise from people who support capitalism.
We firmly believe that our members are politically mature, and we are going to emerge from 10th national congress more united to continue with our socialist mission.