SACP Gauteng chairperson Nkosiphendule Kolisile has stepped down from his administrative post as assistant organiser, throwing the SACP into a fresh controversy. Kolisile’s resignation came in a week when SACP leaders tried to fend off allegations by its national treasurer, Phillip Dexter, of ”Stalinist” tendencies in the party.
Like the African National Congress’s (ANC) national general council two years ago, the party’s national policy conference in two weeks’ time looks set to be an explosive affair. In the run-up to the summit some ANC provinces and regions are making an early bid to eliminate President Thabo Mbeki from the leadership race.
The SACP has warned that several mysterious recent leaks about assassinations and coup plots bear the hallmarks and sophistication of government security agencies and resemble a series of events that took place before the killing of SACP secretary general Chris Hani in 1993.
The ANC’s top decision-making structure, the national working committee (NWC), has allegedly rejected an internal report that questions the role and powers of its top six officials. The NWC had set up a subcommittee to determine the exact role, purpose and powers of the officials in relation to the NWC and to the national executive committee.
“Bloemfontein for Bloemfonteinians!” This, apparently, is the rallying call of a group of ANC members determined to end the reign of Free State ANC chairperson Ace Magashule and his executive in the province. In the past few weeks the provincial ANC has been taken to court by members and non-members attempting to stop the party from holding its five regional conferences.
The ANC Youth League has warned some of its leaders against manipulating the 50/50 gender quota for their personal leadership interests. The league appeared to be taking a swipe at President Thabo Mbeki’s call for the next president of the country to be a woman. The current gender quota in the ANC calls for 30% of leaders to be women.
Government concedes that the aim of halving the rate of HIV infections in the next five years is ambitious, but says it is an inspirational target. The other main target of the new plan is to provide care and treatment to 80% of those who are HIV positive. Last month government and civil society agreed on the National Strategic Aids plan for the next five years.
The pressure on Robert Mugabe is gathering force following last week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit with Thabo Mbeki’s appointed team of officials, from the presidency and foreign affairs, who are talking to the main protagonists in the Zimbabwean crisis.
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.
In June 2005, two days before the ANC’s National General Council (NGC), ANC deputy secretary Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele insisted to a sceptical media: “The NGC will not discuss the Zuma issue.” The matter was not on the agenda. It is now a fact of history that the NGC became the ultimate platform for ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma.