/ 18 December 2009

‘I was right about the left’

Booed last week, Billy Masetlha now feels vindicated by President Jacob Zuma's handling of affairs.

The man who caused all the trouble by publicly deploring the growing dominance of the left in the ANC feels vindicated by President Jacob Zuma’s lambasting of communists for interfering in the ANC’s affairs.

Speaking to the Mail & Guardian this week, Billy Masetlha dismissed statements by Cosatu that only a small group within the ANC was opposed to the left’s call for radical policy changes in the party.
‘Zuma is not a small group … he spoke out on this [and] made it clear who leads the alliance. We are not fighting for socialism. They [the left] are fighting for socialism,” said Masetlha, who is a member of the ANC’s national executive committee. He felt vindicated that Zuma had clarified the roles of the ANC and the SACP in the alliance, he said.

Zuma took a tough line on the left at the SACP special congress in Polokwane last week, after the delegates booed ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.

In his address to the congress Zuma warned alliance partners not to overstep the line of constructive criticism and become an opposition.
Zuma reminded delegates that, contrary to suggestions by some leaders of the left that the alliance should become the centre of power, the ANC would always play a leading role in the alliance. He also warned the SACP against playing an opposition role to the ANC.

‘We need to respect the constitutional autonomy of all alliance partners,” he said in his address. ‘The ANC will continue to determine in its structures how to advance its objective. The role of the SACP in the alliance is to assist the ANC to succeed in implementing its programme of action.”

Masetlha said the majority of ANC structures were angry about the conduct of some Cosatu and SACP leaders who wanted to take over the ANC. ‘If I don’t defend the ANC, I would be failing in fulfilling my role as a national executive committee member,” he told the M&G.

‘This is our revolution. Some of us have sacrificed. We can’t run away now. We cannot have a few people who think they can change the direction of the ANC.”

But he is ‘not anti-communist”, he said. ‘I believe the party has a huge role to play within the alliance. We [the ANC] need to engage with them … I am used to real robust engagement. That’s the reality about our revolution … This revolution is serious. If we start playing these games, we lose it,” said Masetlha.

He said he did not object to communists serving as leaders in the ANC. ‘I would vote for a member of the SACP who has demonstrated good leadership. I love some of the left policies, but differ with the position and strategies they put forward.
‘I will never be anti-communist. I am not a narrow chauvinist.”

Masetlha was booed alongside Malema last week at the SACP conference. But unlike Malema, Masetlha stayed and participated for the duration of the conference.

This article was part of a two-page spread in the Mail & Guardian’s lead story for December 18 to 22 2009. Read the other stories: