‘Better to be irritated by EFF than neo-liberal forces’ – SACP’s Mapaila slams the GNU

South African Communist Party (SACP) general-secretary, Solly Mapaila has heavily criticised the ANC for forming a government that includes the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Mapaila was speaking at the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) national political school held in Ekurhuleni on Monday.

Mapaila tears into ANC

In his keynote address, Mapaila slammed the ANC, in the presence of the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, for teaming up with the DA in a government of national Unity (GNU), despite the tripartite alliance partners expressing their discomfort about such a move.

The SACP is ANC’s alliance partner, alongside the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

“We didn’t even want this so-called GNU. It’s a coalition in my view. The GNU is a notion that is neither here nor there,” he said on Monday.

Mapaila pointed out that during the GNU negotiations, the SACP had made it clear to the ANC that it was against the inclusion of “neo-liberal forces” like the DA.

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The communist party would have preferred the ANC form a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) because the two parties share similar ideologies.

“We thought we could set up a minority government with forces like the EFF.”

Realising that the ANC had no interest in engaging with the EFF, Mapaila claimed he took the initiative to reach out to the red berets.

“Of course, the ANC NEC [national executive committee] went and said we are going with the government of national unity, we are inviting everyone. Then the EFF comes and says, we are not going to join if everyone is included, particularly the DA and Freedom Front Plus.

“[The EFF] even went further than us and said these [parties] are colonial forces. So when they did that I’m like oh my gosh, sishayiwe [we’ve been defeated] because now the ANC has been pushed to the corner once more.”

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He made more attempts to convince the ANC and the EFF to join forces.

“I did not give up the first day. I went to meet comrade Floyd Shivambu the day after I 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.

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“It will be better to be irritated by the EFF in Cabinet then to be irritated by the neo-liberal forces who want to take control of the revolution.”

Mapaila said he was surprised when the GNU statement of intent, signed by Mbalula and DA’s Helen Zille on the morning of the first sitting of the National Assembly on 14 June, circulated in the public domain.

He said the initial reaction from “everyone” was that the ANC has “sold out”.

The SACP secretary-general claimed that the SACP’s input on the statement of intent was “meaningless” because they were ignored in the final document.

Mbalula slams critics

Earlier, Mbalula criticised the ANC’s “armchair critics” and “loudmouths” (excluding the SACP, Nehawu, and Cosatu) for telling the party who to work with instead of helping the “revolution” attain the more than six million votes it received from the electorate.

“Maybe we would have gotten eight million,” he said on Monday.

The ANC secretary-general said although they were “in a stranger territory”, the alliance had an obligation to “up our game”.

READ MORE: Zuma defeated the ANC – Mbalula

“The GNU that we have conceptualised demands of us to re-strategise as we can no longer rely on the assumptions of yesteryear.”

He added: “We are going to engage in the alliance how we are going to navigate these unchartered waters and the new terrain going forward.”