ANC remains divided – Blade Nzimande

Speaking at the South African Communist Party’s (SACP) 4th Special National Congress, general secretary Blade Nzimande said the ANC was divided and hadn’t overcome the issues it had encountered in the runup to the Nasrec conference, supporting his view that the communist party had a role to play in building the ANC.

Tabling the party’s political report, Nzimande argued that divisions and tensions in the ANC were so severe that the party did not know if they would survive the Nasrec conference.

“Fortunately, the ANC is still one” even though there were divisions, he said.

He reiterated the importance of a party such as the ANC by stating that even in the demise of the ANC, an ANC type of organisation to advance “the revolution” would be needed.

“We need a revolutionary ANC that is rooted amongst the people and capable of uniting the people of South Africa as a whole.”

SACP members should be building the ANC, he told journalists.

He moved on to highlight that the country was at a time where parliamentary opposition was in apparent disarray.

“We must note what is happening in the DA (Democratic Alliance). The crises in the party reflects what we know as white liberalism.”

He moved on to highlight the number of reports on ratings agencies in the country, and how it seemed like “ratings agencies” were now becoming a “scarecrow” to scare the country from thinking of creative economic solutions.

He said austerity measures adopted by government resulted in the rich benefiting from the poor, and Nzimande questioned why the rich were not being taxed more. This he described as the “austeritisation” of politics.

Nzimande reiterated the need for SACP resolutions to be supported by all members of the central committee as they clearly outlined the necessity of the alliance with the ANC to continue. The resolution clearly emphasised the need to unite the working class and to build the working-class power.

Unity with the ANC was paramount, he said, even though the SACP would side with a certain faction of the party – through a decision or vote – only to be dumped a year or two later.

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