Cosatu and the South African Communist Party’s strategy for getting ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma into the hot seat is to swell the ranks of the ANC. Once elected with the left’s support the allies believe that Zuma will be more amenable than President Thabo Mbeki to a radical programme of social change.
But this week, the young Turks in the party threw a hammer and sickle in the wheels of the strategy by questioning its intentions and effectiveness.
The Gauteng SACP, one of the party’s largest regions, is the first structure to do so. The newly elected leadership of the SACP in Gauteng this week questioned whether the swelling of the ranks was merely a proxy call for the support of Zuma.
Gauteng provincial chairperson Nkosiphendule Kholisile said there was nothing new in the swelling of the ranks, saying this had been happening ever since the unbanning of political parties in 1990 and that it had failed to produce results. The strongest sentiment in Gauteng was that the party should seek to stay independent and contest state power on its own.
The new leadership also broke ranks with national party leadership under Blade Nzimande saying the party should not be focusing on personalities, a comment read as criticism of the party’s public support for Zuma.
‘Over the years the party has defended its leaders because they are products of the struggle, but that should not mean that the struggle for socialism should depend on this or that hero. It will be inconsistent with party tradition to elevate individuals above party struggles,†said deputy secretary for Gauteng Jacob Mamabolo.
Secretary Zico Tamela said the SACP in Gauteng had been unfairly labelled a ‘Thabo Mbeki province†because it did not support Zuma personally but had followed the principled party line. Gauteng was last year criticised for presenting a special gift to Mbeki during a fundraising dinner.
Tamela said the province agreed with past provincial secretary Vishwas Satgar’s assessment that the SACP was in danger of becoming a ‘Stalinist partyâ€.
He said the expulsion of Young Communist League deputy secretary Mazibuko Jara, the previous suspension of Nkosiphendule Kholisile, the public criticism of deputy secretary Jeremy Cronin and the labelling of individuals as part of the ‘1996 Class Projectâ€, were all signs of an SACP becoming intolerant of views it did not like.
The ‘1996 Class Project†is the nomenclature the party uses to describe individuals like Mbeki and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who wrote the growth employment and redistribution strategy.
Centre for Policy Studies analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said he did not see the ANC changing substantially at the end of its national conference in December either in terms of policy or leadership. He said qualitatively and quantitatively Cosatu and the SACP did not have the force to make changes in the ANC.
‘The move to swell the ranks and influence cannot be done on an ad hoc basis. It cannot be a reactive approach to tensions in the alliance. For that strategy to work, it has to be an ongoing qualitative change and influence.†Analyst Steven Friedman said the flooding strategy was a return to old policy from the early 1990s.
‘In the early 1990s Cosatu felt the way to influence the ANC policy was to put comrades in the ANC candidates list.
‘That is why you had the likes of John Gomomo, Jay Naidoo and Connie September on the ANC list in 1994. But they realised this did not work because those parliamentarians were operating under the ANC mandate in the National Assembly. They are now thinking of a new method. So the strategy is to elect an ANC president who will be sympathetic to their cause,†said Friedman.
