S'Thembiso Msomi: It was refreshing yesterday to hear the ANC admit that the undue influence of business over the ruling party is a major problem that must be tackled urgently.

Though Luthuli House is not saying that it is now in favour of calls by progressive social movements for the private-sector funding of political parties to be made public, remarks by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe at a press conference yesterday suggested that the party has accepted that the status quo is unsustainable.

But then Mantashe went on to spoil it all by disappointingly jumping on the bandwagon of those who have sought to turn the controversy about the Gupta family's alleged undue influence over President Jacob Zuma's government into a racial issue.

Since the Sunday Times broke the story about growing anger within the ANC about claims that the Gupta brothers use their proximity to Zuma and his family to determine important government appointments and decisions, there has been a concerted campaign - largely involving individuals with financial links to the brothers - to dismiss the claims as racist and xenophobic.

It seems the ruling party's secretary-general is now convinced that this is an effective strategy for deflecting public attention from the ANC's Gupta crisis.

The former unionist blamed the claims levelled at the Guptas on "racial prejudice" and argued that the brothers were being singled out for public scrutiny because they were from India.

He said there is usually "no hullaballoo" when major white-dominated capitalists, such as Anglo-American and BHP, enter into empowerment deals with black companies. But once an Indian or Chinese company does the same, there is an outcry, Mantashe said.

"That is when I talk about racial prejudice because many people have partnered with Anglo and became successful beneficiaries of BEE in this country .

"Now why is it an issue when an Indian company partners with beneficiaries of BEE? That is where the racial prejudice is," he said.

But what Mantashe and his fellow travellers are doing is clutching at straws.

It is not the nationality of the family that has gone into business with Zuma's son Duduzane that is at issue here.

What Mantashe, Zuma and the ANC have to deal with are the strong perceptions within their own ranks that the brothers' links to the president, his family and some cabinet ministers have given them undue power and unfair access to lucrative opportunities.

Asked by a journalist if the party's national working committee had discussed the Guptas, Mantashe did not deny it outright.

Instead, he told the reporters that the committee had decided to deal with the influence on politics of "business generally". In other words, the issue did come up.

Now, why would it be raised in a forum as important as the ruling party's national working committee if party leaders were not too concerned about the role of the Guptas, and if the controversy were just a fabrication of an anti-Indian and racist media?

The fact is, concerns about the Guptas, as well as about the involvement of Zuma's family in multibillion-rand deals, are being expressed openly in the ANC and its alliance partners.

In fact, many in the alliance see the matter as so important that they believe it might even determine the outcome of next year's ANC national conference, at which Zuma will seek a second term as party president.

No one speaks on the record, but several of our political reporters are being privately told that various groups of leaders have been asked to talk quietly to Zuma about the dangers posed to his presidency by his continued association with this family.

For Mantashe, and a number of other ANC leaders who rose through party ranks on a Zuma ticket, their best option in trying to quell the internal upheaval and save their jobs ahead of next year's conference is to discredit as "racial prejudice" the concerns about the Guptas' influence.

That is cheap politicking and will not rescue Zuma and the ANC from the quagmire.

Since the meeting of the party's national general council in September, Zuma's prospects of serving another term have looked good.

The meeting demonstrated that his huge popularity in the party was unquestioned and that no one could stand against him and win.

But claims that the Guptas might have known the details of his cabinet reshuffle before he announced them to his ministers seem to have angered many to the extent that another party leader might gain the confidence to challenge him next year.

To win back the support he has lost, Zuma will have to do more than blame it all on anti-Asian sentiment.