SACP's Mapaila tears into ANC, which is 'now dominated by neoliberals'

The SA Communist Party has come out strongly against the ANC’s decision to include the DA and the Freedom Front Plus in its government of national unity (GNU).

Speaking at the Nehawu national political school on Monday, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila tore into its tripartite alliance partner the ANC, saying it had got into bed with neoliberal and colonial parties in the form of the DA and FF Plus.

This, he said, was because the dominant faction in the ANC was now neoliberal and in favour of austerity measures.

This faction was always there but was now in charge of the party and has defeated the progressive faction that was pushing for a coalition with the EFF in favour of the DA and the Freedom Front Plus, he said.

“In the ANC there’s always been a neoliberal faction which is the dominant faction today. So it’s a class battle to push that neoliberal faction inside the ANC. Because its orientation will always go towards the DA. That is why the murmurings even during the campaign were that there were negotiations between the ANC and the DA. People denied this but it's now coming to fruition,” said Mapaila.

Mapaila said the alliance tried to negotiate for an EFF coalition with the ANC but the ANC rejected it, claiming the EFF did not respect the party. 

“I did not give up. The first day I went to meet comrade Floyd [Shivambu] was the day after I had buried my brother. I lost my brother when I was at the Siyanqoba rally. I went to see him [Shivambu] and said 'comrade, you can’t continue this way'.

“I went to the ANC. It was back and forth begging people to actually focus on the possible revolutionary path. It will be better to be irritated by the EFF in cabinet than to be irritated by the neoliberal forces who want to be dominant and take control of the revolution.”

Mapaila said during the GNU negotiations, the SACP had made it clear to the ANC that it was against the inclusion of the DA. The inputs the SACP had made to the GNU statement of intent were also ignored by the ANC, claimed Mapaila.

“We didn’t even want — as you know — this so-called GNU. It’s a coalition in my view. GNU is a notion that is neither here nor there,” said Mapaila.

He said the Communist Party had pushed for a minority government with forces such as the EFF. 

“The day after the election results were announced, we met as the alliance secretariat, we said comrade Mbalula at this moment the critical point is that the liberation forces must secure political power, the leadership of this transition, we said so.”

Realising that there would be no appetite from the ANC to engage the EFF, Mapaila said he took it upon himself to engage the red berets who had essentially agreed to join forces with the ANC.

“I took the initiative and called the EFF. I had several meetings with them,” he said, adding that this was to keep “these right-wing reactionary forces out of the process”. 

He said that the ANC had also ignored late night inputs the SACP had made to the statement of intent before it was signed by its secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.