Provincial ‘purge’ part of a national strategy to oust Gwede Mantashe in 2012
South African Communist Party support for the ANC in next year’s municipal elections in North West could be under threat with the ANC succession battle tearing the alliance in the province apart.
Cosatu and the SACP accuse the ANC’s provincial task team and Maureen Modiselle, the North West premier, of spearheading a purge of communist party leaders ahead of the leadership contest at the ANC’s 2012 congress.
Madoda Sambatha, the SACP provincial secretary, said that there was a feeling in the party that the ANC should not be abandoned because of “a demagogic group that is looking after its own selfish interests” but alliance partners were tired of working in a “ja, baas, situation”.
“There’s a call to remove all our structures from participating in local government elections but we’re still discussing that with them,” Sambatha said.
Modiselle’s decision to sack Grace Pampiri-Bothman, the North West sport and recreation minister, early this week has increased the tension that has been simmering for months.
Pampiri-Bothman is a member of the SACP’s central committee and former leader of Cosatu’s retail affiliate, Saccawu. She was appointed minister in May last year with the blessing of the disbanded ANC provincial executive committee, which wanted to include alliance partners in the provincial government.
Modiselle refused to go into details about the “defiance, disrespect and disdain” she accuses Pampiri-Bothman of showing her office, but said the minister’s relationship with her acting department head, Sam Mokaila, had broken down completely, affecting the running of the department.
The SACP and Cosatu blame the task team, led by Saki Mofokeng, the former ANC Youth League leader, for the attack on the left.
Solly Phetoe, Cosatu’s provincial secretary, said: “In the country there’s a 2012 class project, which is about removing the ANC secretary general [Gwede Mantashe], who is an SACP leader. She [Pampiri-Bothman] is also an SACP leader, that’s why she was removed.”
He said that Modiselle, Mofokeng and Mokaila were purging communists before the 2012 contest.
Sambatha said the task team was focusing on the 2012 battle instead of stabilising the ANC in North West. “They are an extension of people at national level who have started a campaign to remove the ANC SG [secretary general],” he said.
Mofokeng is a close ally of Fikile Mbalula, the deputy police minister and a contender for the secretary general’s post. The youth league has launched an unofficial campaign to vote out Mantashe in 2012.
Modiselle described the claims as “false and baseless”.
The ANC disbanded the provincial executive committee, led by former provincial secretary Supra Mahumapelo, last year, saying infighting for economic control of the province was threatening party unity.
“The only difference now is that the task team was appointed by the ANC NEC [national executive committee] but they are still a faction,” Sambatha said.
Mofokeng denied allegations of factionalism and said: “They [his accusers] must not manufacture things.”
He said the SACP and Cosatu were “taking us backwards” by opposing everything the ANC did and using the media to get their message across.
Cosatu and the SACP are upset that they were informed of the decision to fire Pampiri-Bothman only a day before the announcement was made and were not involved in efforts to find a solution. They believe that the task team was behind her dismissal.
Mofokeng defended Modiselle and said the allegations made against her were “the worst form of chauvinism — thinking that, because Maureen is a woman, she cannot think”.
The SACP, Cosatu and individual affiliates of the federation have said Modiselle is “incapable of leading the province” and should be recalled.
It is believed Pampiri-Bothman was going to order an investigation into allegations of tender rigging when she was fired. Earlier this year she suspended Mokaila but Modiselle reversed the decision, saying the minister had exceeded her powers.
Modiselle did not deny that she was Mokaila’s friend but said she would not compromise her integrity because of a friendship.