SACP slams factionalism at ANC events and conferences

The SA Communist Party (SACP) has called on its alliance partner, the ANC, to stop using important gatherings and conferences as factional battlegrounds.

In its statement on the 109th anniversary of the formation of the ANC, the SACP lambasted factions in the party.

“The SACP calls upon the ANC and the whole of the alliance to stop using important gatherings, like conferences and congresses, as battlegrounds for factions. Neither should we begin to attach names and surnames to the resolutions of our movement as if they were adopted to target certain individuals,” reads the statement.

It comes amid heightened tensions in the ANC between a faction supporting under-fire secretary-general Ace Magashule and former president Jacob Zuma — under the banner of the so-called “RET forces” — and a faction supporting President Cyril Ramaphosa.

RET is short for “radical economic transformation”, a resolution of the party that was championed by Zuma supporters.

The ANC is now preparing for its next elective conference, scheduled for next year, where the two factions are expected to clash over leadership positions.

This year two provinces — the North West and Mpumalanga — are expected to hold their highly anticipated conferences, while a number of regions, including the influential eThekwini region in KwaZulu-Natal, will also hold conferences which are expected to test Ramaphosa's authority in the ANC.

“As things stand, the greatest enemy to our movement is not from outside but from inside. Internal divisions and factional conduct anchored in capitalist relations and associated competition for access to and control of organisational and state power and resources constitute the biggest threat to our national democratic revolution and movement,” reads the SACP statement.

The SACP called for organisational renewal and unity within the ANC.

“That must include the unity and reconfiguration of the ANC-headed alliance to function optimally. The alliance remains strategically important. We expect the ANC to lead in protecting and nurturing this alliance.”

The SACP said it was ready to make a contribution towards the unity of the ANC.

TimesLIVE