Political bickering and name-calling continued on Monday as the African National Congress (ANC) lashed out at a ”malicious attack and hurling of insults” by Young Communist League (YCL) national secretary Buti Manamela.
”No serious-minded individual will accord respect to such insults as contained in their statement,” said ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.
This was after the YCL said President Thabo Mbeki had struck ”a cheap and cowardly blow” against South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande when Mbeki called Nzimande extraordinarily arrogant during his speech to the ANC’s national executive committee meeting over the weekend.
Mbeki said an attack by Nzimande on his leadership and the ANC amounted to serious ”provocation”.
YCL chairperson David Masondo called Mbeki a dictator during a press conference on Monday.
Ngonyama said the ANC hoped young people would not emulate the example set by the YCL.
”The ANC is an old organisation, with tried, tested and respectable leaders. It continues to be led by a politically matured leadership, steeped in the traditions of its founding fathers.
”It has a highly disciplined membership, and therefore it cannot stoop so low as to even respond to insults of this nature.”
The ANC spokesperson was himself a victim of Manamela’s wrath, who said ”bourgeoisification” of the ANC was increasingly becoming dangerous for the country and the poor.
”It is this bourgeoisification that has also led to stealing of public resources to fund the Telkom deal, of which the ANC [spokesperson] Smuts Ngonyama was a key beneficiary,” said Manamela.
Manamela said the YCL stood behind Nzimande’s call for the teaching of dialectical and historic materialism in schools, his commitment to the fight against HIV and Aids, the eradication of poverty and for a challenge to the ”bourgeoisification” of the ANC.
Mbeki had consistently continued to abuse ANC platforms to insult the integrity of the SACP and its leadership, Manamela said.
He said such a statement by the president proved their long belief that Mbeki was not committed to build the alliance.
”Instead of constructively engaging with alliance partners in bilateral or alliance meetings, he chooses to cowardly attack them in the absence of the SACP collective.”
He said both the ANC statement and Mbeki’s political overview sought to shift the blame of the crisis that the ANC was facing as being caused by the alliance partners.
”The ANC president is trying to find a scapegoat in the SACP. He has created the crisis in the ANC, and people must not be diverted from this hard fact.”
Manamela said there were major problems facing the ANC and the country, including land for the landless, transport, poverty and unemployment.
”Instead of the president identifying and dealing with these problems, and concentrating on uniting the ANC, he chose to divide it further and avoid the impact that the SACP has made through its campaigns.”
Despite this and other strains in the tripartite alliance between the ANC, SACP and Congress of South African Trade Unions, the various parties have continued to deny any rift in the alliance.
Ngonyama said on Sunday: ”There is absolutely no combativeness … There is no acrimony.”
Ngonyama also reiterated that there was ”no split in the alliance”.
”We agree on some issues; we disagree on some issues.” — Sapa