Incompatible — the SACP’s anti-GNU stance and its own ‘principles’

The fact that some in the top leadership of the ANC felt it was important to hold an event to mark the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) leads to many questions, and may in fact show that bad decisions are being made.

In politics, it is usually better to avoid discussing defeats, or issues that could lead to divisions. 

This event led to both.

While the party claims that it was important to commemorate one hundred days since the formation of the coalition, no other party has felt this need. Instead, they are looking for ways to take more votes from the ANC in the next local elections.

It was also inevitable that the SACP would publicly say it was boycotting the event because of its opposition to the coalition. It has been properly and consistently vocal about this.

The SACP has said that this is a point of principle.

But like so many of its previous “points of principle”, that messaging has been completely undermined by its continued acceptance of Cabinet positions for its leaders. 

Clearly, Blade Nzimande is not going to give up his position as Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation for a mere principle. He has never done so before.

But it is also not clear what the SACP would have preferred to happen.

Should the ANC really have negotiated with Jacob Zuma’s MK party when its starting point for negotiations was that the ANC’s leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa, must first be removed?

The SACP’s stance here gets to the heart of its real role in the last 30 years.

With the exception of its decision to oppose Jacob Zuma towards the end of his presidency (after first campaigning for him to be ANC leader), it has simply been too interested in power and patronage for some of its leaders to really follow principle.

That said, its role here may turn out to be important.

It is worth reiterating that the ANC has not had any kind of debate among its members and leaders about forming the coalition. But it is becoming clear that there is a faction that opposes it, as was always inevitable.

The SACP may now be in a position where it can be seen to lead that faction.

As has happened so many times in the ANC, when people feel they cannot publicly criticise a decision by the leadership, the SACP or Cosatu can become an important vehicle to voice their frustration.

There are many resonances with the past here. 

It was the SACP and Cosatu that first publicly campaigned for Zuma and against Thabo Mbeki in the years leading up to the ANC’s 2007 Polokwane conference.

And again, it was first Cosatu and then the SACP that started to campaign against Zuma (along with the Gauteng ANC, led at the time by Paul Mashatile) during the period from 2016 to 2017.

Panyaza Lesufi