The 11th congress of the South African Communist Party this week set about drawing up parameters of permissible conduct for party members serving in the African National Congress-led government.
The guidelines are intended to clarify boundaries of behaviour for communists deployed in the private sector and other sections of the society, according to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. He was presenting his political report to the congress in Rustenberg this week.
His announcement followed a call from members of the party to discipline communist members of the government, such as Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe and Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, who are among those overseeing the government’s privatisation of state assets.
Nzimande said measures to clarify the contradictory positions adopted by communists in government would include ensuring active participation in the day-to-day affairs of the party by members serving in the government. This would help maintain communication between these communists and the party. His party would also improve its ability to monitor members deployed elsewhere.
Minister of Land Affairs and Agriculture Thoko Didiza suggested from the floor that the ANC, too, needed clarity on how communists in government should behave.
The conference was attended by an ANC contingent led by its national chairperson, Mosiuoa Lekota, and secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe.
Nzimande, in his political report, departed from his party’s slogan “Socialism in the Future” to demand socialism in the present.
Though Nzimande endorsed the long-standing formulation that the tripartite alliance had to be led by the ANC, he added that it had to be driven by the working class.
Citing recent financial scandals in the United States, escalating food prices and increasing unemployment, Nzimande argued that socialism was the panacea for South Africa’s problems.
Referring to current frosty relations between his party and the ANC, he said “there is no single corner in any of our alliance components that possesses the sole wisdom on taking the national development revolution forward”.
Later, at a press conference, Nzimande slammed as “racist” recent attacks on the SACP by some ANC members, who alleged it was run by whites.
This attack on the SACP followed the publicity given in South Africa to an interview the SACP’s deputy general secretary, Jeremy Cronin, had given to an Irish academic, Helena Sheehan.
Nzimande said he found the insinuation that he was controlled by the whites in his party “objectionable”.
The congress was due to elect its new office bearers at the weekend.