The South African Communist Party has blasted The New Age newspaper for what it describes as defending the “smash-and-grab” agendas of the Gupta family.The party accused the newspaper of concocting “toxic gibberish” purportedly coming from ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in an article published on Friday. Mantashe is quoted in the article‚ headlined “SACP ‘must self-correct’”‚ saying that‚ “The SACP has registered its own candidates to contest the elections in the Eastern Cape’s Alfred Nzo district municipality. They went against our advice and refused to co-operate.” The article suggested that tensions between the ANC and SACP alliance had reached boiling point.A statement issued by the SACP on Friday said: “The newspaper attributes this gibberish to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe‚ who knows where to contact the SACP and how to engage with the party‚ including necessity of validating with it any information that comes to his attention concerning the SACP. The SACP outright dismisses the claim as a big lie. “The New Age is obviously defending the brazen smash-and-grab accumulation agendas of the Guptas.”The party‚ which started its central committee meeting on Friday‚ demanded that The New Age retract the story or face legal consequences.Solly Mapaila‚ the SACP’s second deputy general-secretary‚ lambasted the ANC this week for closing its investigation into allegations of “state capture”.Mantashe had a day earlier said that only one out of eight people‚ who came forward with allegations about state capture‚ had submitted a complaint in writing.The New Age story said Mantashe had described Mapaila’s attack as “opportunistic” and the utterances of an “angry person”.“The party (SACP) had an opportunity to participate in the investigation but they chose not to. It was only after the NEC (national executive committee) decision was announced that they approached me to make a submission. This was an after the fact reaction‚” Mantashe was quoted as saying.The SACP fired off a broadside in its reaction on Friday‚ saying the attacks on Mapaila‚ who had “correctly expressed the views of the party on the behaviour of the Guptas‚ factionalism in our movement and the state‚ corruption and corporate capture‚ is an attack on the party as a whole.“There is nothing so-called populist and so-called opportunistic about the views expressed by Mapaila on the behalf of the SACP. Instead‚ he has been telling the truth as determined by the SACP and has the full backing of the party. As the SACP‚ we will not back down.”The SACP’s central committee is meeting this weekend to discuss among other matters‚ challenges facing the party‚ the alliance and the movement as a whole meeting‚ South Africa’s economy and the elections. It will announce the outcomes on Sunday...