THE South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Riot Makomanisi Mkhwanazi District, has lashed out at its alliance partner, the ANC’s Musa Dladla Region, for taking unilateral decisions on matters directly affecting them.
Addressing a media briefing at their Empangeni offices last week, SACP District Secretary David Chonco accused the ANC leadership of introducing ‘foreign tendencies’ in the alliance, which leave them as spectators.
Chonco said they were disturbed by the suspension of City of uMhlathuze Mayor, Cllr Elphas Mbatha, at the last Council meeting – a critical moment with the local government elections looming.
‘We are saddened by this attitude and our feeling is that the mayor’s suspension leaves much to be desired. From where we are sitting it appears as if he is being punished for reiterating the Auditor General’s report that there was underspending at the uMhlathuze Municipality.
‘We want to make it clear that we are not just defending the mayor, but the principle. When Mbatha was deployed to uMhlathuze, we were engaged as alliance partners, but when he is shown the door we are kept in the dark. How do you explain that?
‘Considering all the rumours in this regard, we trust there will be no further developments preventing the mayor from delivering the State of the City address.
‘We are the eyes and ears of the community and our people are asking questions as to what is happening in uMhlathuze, but we don’t have the answers.
‘We had hoped to iron out all relevant issues with the ANC at an alliance summit, but this too has not materialised,’ said Chonco.
District Chairman Xolani Zulu said it was the first time that the SACP was not engaged by the current leadership of the ANC when major decisions were taken.
‘We are in an alliance with them, but they keep going solo. These solo projects have not worked. It is clear that relations between us and the ANC are sour.
‘We invited them to our district congress and they did not come, and when we were invited to their regional lekgotla, we were not given space to air our views as the Communist Party.’
Zulu said they were as concerned about crime in the region like everybody else, but they could not be part of the recent ANC march against crime because they were not involved in the planning.
‘We only received an invitation to join the march. That is not how the alliance operates. You don’t invite, but you involve us in the planning of the march, because we also have our own issues. This has been a trend in the alliance all these years.’
ANC Musa Dladla Regional Chairperson Thulani Mashaba said it was with dismay to learn about the SACP’s views from the media, instead of the two parties engaging internally to iron out any issues.
‘It is against the culture and the spirit of the alliance to wash our dirty linen in public. We will consult with them on any issues they have a problem with. Our door is always open, and we hope we will find each other very soon,’ Mashaba said.
