The South African Communist Party expressed anger at the release of a letter by President Thabo Mbeki on Jacob Zuma on Friday, saying it was supposed to be an internal alliance document.
”We are honestly very angry,” SACP spokesperson Kaizer Mohau said.
He said the letter, in which Mbeki suggests a commission of inquiry to probe claims that he and others are seeking to destroy Zuma politically, had not been discussed by an alliance meeting where it was presented.
”The letter was presented at midnight. We had no time to discuss it because there were many other issues on the agenda. This undermines alliance protocol,” Mohau said.
The letter was submitted by African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and posted on the ANC’s website on Friday.
Mbeki said the alliance should establish the commission to establish whether ”members of the ANC and the broad democratic movement, including the president of the ANC, have been and are involved in a conspiracy targeted at marginalising or destroying deputy president Zuma”.
Some members of the tripartite alliance, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions, believe there is a politically inspired conspiracy to stop Zuma from becoming the next president of the ANC because he is seen to be too close to the working class.
Cosatu’s central committee resolved last week to call on Mbeki to ensure corruption charges against Zuma were dropped, and that he be reinstated as the country’s deputy president.
Mbeki called for the inquiry in the letter written to a 10-a-side alliance meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Zuma saga.
Mohau said the SACP was responding reluctantly to the letter as ”we were unfortunately not aware nor informed that this letter was going to be made public”.
”Our understanding, in line with alliance protocols, was that it was one of the internal documents of the alliance for further consideration,” he said.
He said the SACP will speak to the ANC about the document being made public, and its contents will be discussed at the next 10-a-side alliance meeting, which will be held within the next two weeks. — Sapa