SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila has labelled the ANC sell-outs for forming a coalition with the DA under the guise of a Government of National Unity (GNU).
“We never stopped the ANC from speaking to anyone. The day after the elections were announced, we met as the alliance secretariat (and) said at this moment the critical point is that the liberation forces must secure political power. We anchored this on the basis not with the neo-liberal forces of the DA and not with the counter-revolutionary forces of MK.
“In that process we were then left with engaging possibly (with) the forces of the EFF and others to set up a minority government.
“I took the initiative, I called the EFF, I had several meetings with them. I went to meet comrade Floyd (Shivambu), the day after I buried my brother. I went to the ANC, it was back and forth begging people to actually focus on the possible revolutionary path.”
He made the remarks while addressing the Nehawu National Political School which met for its second sitting at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg on Monday.
Some in the ANC were “too impatient” with the view of looking into a coalition with the EFF, he said, but proceeded to offer “reactionary forces and anti-revolutionary forces so much power.”
The other faction inside the ANC was “too helpless”, he said.
Nehawu President Mike Shingange said: “Our movement is sandwiched. We are under a government of an elite pact.
We chose political parties based on what they were selling to us.” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party had not been politically obliterated but had suffered a setback.
The ANC could have opted to be a backbencher in Parliament, which would have made the party the biggest opposition party ever.
“People are saying we still want you to continue to lead, but at the end of the day you don’t have an outright majority.
That is a setback, which then as a revolutionary party and revolutionaries need to be interpreted correctly.
“As the Communist Party says, we need to learn how to safeguard power.
I have never seen a 40% party leading a government like we do. We have the president of the country.” Political analyst professor Sipho Seepe said it starts with the idea of the broad church that defines the ANC alliance.
“The perspective of elections is that it is always a powerful tool that allows the ANC to fish in a bigger pool, unlike if you are a Marxist, for example.
“It presents as home for everyone, creating an illusion that in that broad church everyone can be accommodated.
“(It is a) mess of internal contradictions. “The ANC has chosen not to address those contradictions. They sell an illusion, everybody can find space, when in fact the dominant faction dictates what the ANC will look like and who the ANC will work with. (The rest) are mere conveniences to serve the interests of the ANC. What it has shown is that it can dump the alliance. The dominant faction of the ANC is no different in ideological outlook than the DA,” he said.
Policy analyst Nkosikhulule Nyembezi said that while life in the “political wilderness” is grim, the ANC alliance had the luxury of time.
“ANC ministers and MPs must work hard to keep ahead of developments in their brief. They, and above all the leader, will need to command the out-tray papers and rebuild relationships with industry and the professions and communities around the country who showed on May 29 that they had lost faith in the ANC alliance.”
Cape Times