‘The alliance just exists in name’: Jacob Zuma takes a dig at Communist Party

“The party itself loosened the manner in which it was able to stick to its discipline.”

Zuma believes that the SACP began to lose its way when it relaxed the recruitment strategies it had been employing during apartheid. It was at this point that it began to be joined by people who did not understand its historic mission for socialism.

“In the party you would not just come in and sit there because you love it, but you would be deliberately thought [to be suitable] and somebody would be looking at your progress to grasp Marxism and Leninism in its scientific way,” he said.

In Zuma’s view, the weakening of the SACP ushered in the disintegration of the tripartite alliance with the ANC and Cosatu. SACP leaders were now obsessed with getting into government positions, thereby abandoning the fight towards socialism.

“If you were a party [SACP] cadre, there is one thing only put in the mind of a party cadre, which is that you fight and destroy the capitalist society and establish socialism, which will lead you to communism,” said Zuma.

“Now, if the party cadres are participating more in government and everything which is not a socialist government, who is fighting for socialism?

“In other words, they [communists] are trying to make the system which in terms of their belief cannot work [and] they spend more time in it. They fight — saying, ‘Take this minister out, blah blah blah,’ — and that is not their business.”

Zuma claimed to have tried to mend the SACP and the alliance but his attempts “were too late”.

He said it was high time the alliance started conversations about what had gone wrong and began to self-introspect. This was because the alliance “at this point in time is at its weakest point”.

Zuma also believes there should be a clear separation of roles between the three. This would mean that the SACP goes back to fighting for socialism, while the ANC runs the government and Cosatu fights for workers.

“It is not good at all. The communists cannot say, ‘We are free now, we are celebrating Freedom Day,’ because with them we have not arrived, as we know the theory of Marxism and Leninism.

“So in other words, the alliance itself I think at times just exists in name. Even when they meet, the kind of issues discussed leave a lot to be desired.”

Zuma concluded his attack on the SACP with his notorious laughter — to his son Duduzane’s remarks that the SACP abbreviation did not stand for SA Communist Party any more but rather for “South African capitalist party”.

“Hahahahaha,” giggled Zuma as the episode ended.

TimesLIVE (TMG Digital)

BY ZINGISA MVUMVU