The crumbling relationship between the ANC and its alliance partners is now manifesting in Limpopo, after premier Stanley Mathabatha’s cabinet reshuffle this week.
The SACP in Limpopo has come out guns blazing against Mathabatha’s recent cabinet reshuffle, calling for those implicated in the looting of VBS Mutual Bank funds to be recalled immediately.
The SACP said the reshuffle was an insult to the victims of the VBS Mutual Bank lootings.
SACP provincial secretary Chuene Malebana has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC’s national leadership to take Mathabatha to task.
“Having consulted extensively and considered the views of the membership, the SACP in Limpopo rejects the reshuffle in its entirety and calls for the immediate
withdrawal from the provincial executive council of all those implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank heist and in other official corruption reports gathering dust on the desk of the premier,” said Malebana.
He warned the ANC to refrain from “political recklessness”.
“Our position against corruption and self-inducing reputational damage on issues of deployment was made clear during our recent Alliance Political Council, barely two weeks ago. It remains the view of the SACP that the latest reshuffle is an insult to the poor victims of the VBS lootings.”
Mathabatha sacked social development MEC Dickson Masemola after he unsuccessfully challenged him for the chairmanship of the ANC in Limpopo at the recent provincial conference.
Also relieved of her duties is MEC for sports, arts and culture Thandi Moraka, while Polly Boshielo was also axed as the political head of the department of transport and community safety.
The writing was on the wall for the three after they were not re-elected into the provincial executive committee at the provincial elective conference in June.
ANC Limpopo deputy chair Florence Radzilani made a comeback as transport and community safety MEC.
She was removed as Vhembe district municipality mayor after facing allegations of looting in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal. She has not been criminally charged.
The party’s treasurer in the province, Nakedi Sibanda-Kekana, and deputy provincial secretary BasikopoMakamu were also included in the reconfigured executive, with the appointments seen as a reward for backing Mathabatha.
The ANC in the province has welcomed the changes made by Mathabatha, saying they will accelerate service delivery.
“The ANC in Limpopo will not only improve provincial capacity to deliver services, but will also accelerate the pace in which services are delivered,” said ANC provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe.
Former Limpopo ANC treasurer Danny Msiza was barred from contesting the position of secretary at the June conference due to his links to the VBS saga, for which he has been criminally charged.
Msiza is among the 14 people charged since being implicated in the looting of the now defunct bank between 2015 and March 2018.
The state alleges that nearly R2.3-billion of money mostly invested by poor people from the rural areas, especially around the bank’s headquarters in Thohoyandou, disappeared from the bank’s vaults.
About 14 municipalities, in Limpopo, North West and Gauteng lost millions of rand after illegally investing with the bank.
Sunday World reported last week that some of Cosatu’s influential affiliates overwhelmingly voted to cut ties with the ANC and instead support the SACP to contest the 2024 elections independently.
However, the push for the SACP to contest elections looks set to face opposition from within the party going into the all-important national elective conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg, in December.
Ramaphosa said last week that the country will be in trouble should the alliance collapse.
“We will not allow the alliance to split. The alliance is going to get stronger. We are not going to allow the alliance to fade away,” he said during the ANC’s Letsema campaign to reconnect with communities in the Northern Cape.
Ramaphosa had also said the party planned to meet its alliance partners to resolve their differences.
Closing the Cosatu congress last week, re-elected Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said the federation wanted the voice of the SACP to be “heard loud and clear”.
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