By Paul Herman, News24
Cape Town – The South African Communist Party in the Western Cape says widespread corruption and looting of state resources has made it consider contesting the next general elections outside of the tripartite alliance for the first time.
Following a Provincial Council meeting held in Cape Town on Saturday, the SACP said divisions and contradictions were sharpening between the party and the ruling ANC.
“The Provincial Council re-emphasised that the Party has not ruled out contesting elections by itself,” the statement read on Sunday.
“However, the Provincial Council counselled that the discussion on state power should be allowed to be concluded in the Party before a position on whether to contest elections in the 2019 national government elections is taken.”
The party also claimed that there was a history of the ANCYL being used as henchmen to tackle those opposed to the “agenda of abusing state power”, but now also uses provincial leaderships to do so too.
Western Cape #SACP says the lead to municipal election was polluted by two factors: #Gupta state capture and #Nkandla judgement. #sabcnews
— Bulelani Phillip (@BulelaniPhillip) September 18, 2016
“The aggressive greed for a rampant accumulation of state resources found a new vehicle epitomised by the ‘Premier League’ which amongst others uses ill-gotten state resources to reduce conferences of the ANC into auctions that sell the ANC to the highest bidder.”
The so-called “Premier League” is said to be an ANC lobby group comprising the party’s provincial leaderships in the North West, Free State and Mpumalanga.
The SACP also highlighted the fractured leadership of the alliance in the Western Cape, calling it “weak” and “reckless”.
ANC Western Cape chairperson Marius Fransman resigned as a member of the Western Cape legislature on Friday.
The SACP called on the ANC to hold an early provincial conference to reinvigorate the party in the Western Cape. – News24
