Sowetan

Zuma has too much power - Blade Nzimande

By Natasha Marrian | Aug 29, 2016 

The South African Communist Party (SACP) has drawn a line in the 

sand for President Jacob Zuma, suggesting he is too powerful both in the cabinet and the national executive committee of the ANC.

The party, which for a long time was silent about Zuma's administration, also said he could not be seen to be leading a faction in the ANC.

Members of the SACP are under fire from the dominant faction in the ANC - comprising the
chairmen of the North West, Mpumalanga, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal - and are among those likely to face the chop in Zuma's next cabinet reshuffle. The three chairman are informally known as the premier league

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said yesterday: "Don't hang cabinet positions over our heads to make us keep quiet."

He said "serious corrective action" had to be taken to ensure the decline in the
 ANC's election performance did not accelerate and there was a "prevailing view"
the ruling party had lost its moral compass.

The party expressed disappointment at the ANC's reaction to the elections, saying
it had diagnosed the problems correctly as it had many times in the past, but
South Africans were hoping for a more clear sign of a willingness to act decisively
against these problems.

SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin said while the ANC national executive 
committee (NEC) was right to take collective responsibility, it was also necessary 
to take individual responsibility.

He said SA operated in a collective system, through the cabinet in government
and through the NEC in the ANC, not by "presidential arrangement". "It is hard to
take collective responsibility when there are tendencies towards presidentialism."

Cronin said it was incorrect to emphasise the president either for "better or worse".
The tendency towards presidentialism was likely a result of SA's legacy of its "larger
than life" president Nelson Mandela. The president should not be seen as the
"salvation" of the nation or the result of its downfall because SA functions through
a collective system.

The SACP is calling on the ANC to convene a consultative national conference to
discuss the problems it faces and discuss ways to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

Nzimande warned that an early elective conference, which he says was proposed in
a factional way by the ANC Youth League, would deepen disunity in the party.
"The winners will inherit a shell organisation."

Second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila, speaking on how the ANC can
root out factionalism, said Zuma should not be seen to be leading a faction.
"The premier league faction has done things in the president's name and no leader
in the top six has spoken out against them."

The party also threw its support behind Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, saying
the Hawks investigation against him smacked of the attempt to prosecute Zuma
before he became ANC president. The motives for prosecuting Gordhan were political -
to capture the national treasury, it said.