General secretary of the SACP, Solly Mapaila, has once again accused its alliance partner, the ANC of creating the impression that the EFF and the MK Party are the enemies of the mass struggle of the poor of this country. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane / Independent Newspapers
General secretary of the SACP, Solly Mapaila, has once again accused its alliance partner, the ANC, of creating the impression that the EFF and the MK Party are the enemies of the mass struggle of the poor of this country.
Mapaila said the real enemy of the people of South Africa is the DA, which the ANC has chosen over progressive black parties such as the EFF and the MKP.
“Jacob Zuma as well as the MK Party and Julius Malema’s EFF are no threat to the ANC, unlike the DA, which represents monopoly capital, our strategic enemy in this country. These are just political adversaries who have political office. These two parties cannot change society, they have nothing. They are just political adversaries. They have nothing and why is the ANC afraid of them?
“Leaders like the national chairperson of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe (with due respect) say no MK Party and the EFF came from the ANC, and they are the enemies of the ANC as much as the DA,” Mapaila said on Wednesday.
Mapaila was speaking during a Mandela Day dialogue held at Freedom Park.
He added that while he was angry at former president Jacob Zuma for forming the MKP, both these parties were not a real threat to the mass struggle or to the ANC and GNU.
Mapaila’s latest stinging attack comes barely a week after he was heard saying the ANC had sold out the masses of this country by aligning itself with the DA.
Last week, Mapaila, who was speaking at a National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union event, said he had approached the EFF following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) after the ANC ignored the SACP on requests to engage with the EFF based on ideological similarities.
“I had several meetings with the ANC and EFF and spoke to Floyd Shivambu to ask them that to join forces and keep these right-wing reactionary forces out of the process. But the ANC NEC said no, (they) are going with the GNU and were inviting everyone to join, and the EFF said they would not join if everyone is included, particularly the DA and Freedom Front Plus, as they were colonial forces.
“When they did that, we realised that we have been hit, because the ANC was being pushed once more to a corner. We (SACP) also never stopped the ANC from talking to the MKP, we told them to talk to everyone as they have said, but we also told them that ideally to establish government, they should say no to the forces of state capture and forces of neo-liberalism of austerity,” he said.
Speaking during a recent interview with SundayWorld, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula slammed Mapaila for his comments.
“I think there is an ideological conceptual paralysis there. Our allies are the SACP, Cosatu and Sanco (the South African National Civic Organisation). The DA, EFF and MK Party and others are not our friends. Neither are they ideologically close to the ANC. To us, our progressive allies, ideologically, are the people we work with,” said Mbalula.
The Star
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