SACP boss Solly Mapaila believes that the sustained attacks against Gauteng ANC chairperson and premier Panyaza Lesufi are because he disrupted a DA project to capture the finances of all leading economic hub provinces in South Africa.
Wittingly or unwittingly, Lesufi, according to Mapaila, disrupted the DA’s most prized mission to control the finances and infrastructure of the Western Cape, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal.
This is because the DA was already controlling the two most important portfolios, both in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, but the party’s rejection by ANC Gauteng made it an incomplete mission.
Enemy might take him down
For that reason, he said, Lesufi was going to be hunted down forever, and if progressive forces within the mass democratic movement did not defend him, the enemy might just succeed in taking him down.
Mapaila made this statement during a comprehensive interview with Sunday World Engage, discussing the current state of domestic politics following the May 29 elections.
Mapaila claims that the ANC’s national alignment with the DA and opposition to ANC Gauteng’s progressive decision to form a government of provincial unity without the blue party is what has led to the worsening of Lesufi’s situation.
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“We have seen the posture towards the comrades here in Gauteng, led by comrade Panyaza Lesufi. But who is the biggest critic of Panyaza?
“It is Helen Zille of the DA and her forces. The ANC just becomes the vessel of the DA on the Gauteng leadership; the DA leads the attack, and then a few days later the ANC expresses the same view.
“We are not fools; that is why we called Helen Zille and said she must stop interfering in the ANC processes.
“There is a big reason for the attacks on Panyaza because the DA controls the Western Cape unhindered; they have the finance department there as well as public works, which is the infrastructure; they control the same in KZN, finance, and infrastructure, because the IFP, which collaborated with them in the moonshot pact, listens to them.”
He went on: “They wanted the same here in Gauteng because once they have that, they control the finance and the infrastructure of the country.
“These three provinces are the most dominant economic powerhouses of South Africa. So, it is in this regard that they cannot pardon Panyaza for going ahead without the DA.”
Lesufi should be protected
Mapaila said the threatening of Lesufi by the DA and their forces within the ANC was a call for all progressive forces to close ranks around Lesufi.
He cited the complaints by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula about the “Don’t Kill Chris Hani Again” T-shirt that Lesufi wears as another form of intimidation.
“At this point in time, comrade Panyaza should be protected because there is no doubt about it that he is being threatened because of his stance on the GNU [government of national unity],” said Mapaila.
“He has been called into account for this stance. Comrade Panyaza belongs to a structure of the ANC in which the NEC [national executive committee] can remove him any day, but they cannot remove me. Some forces have tried, but they will not succeed.”
Abuse of democratic centralism
Mapaila said the danger Lesufi was facing is that of removal, which was another reason ANC members must protect him.
The summoning to Luthuli House to explain his GNU stance was meant to silence him and entrench the abuse of democratic centralism to shield wrong decisions such as the coalition with the DA from scrutiny.
“Panyaza and them have been warned several times; although there is a provincial government of unity here in the province, the only thing is that it excludes the DA, the main coalition partner of the ANC at the national level.
“They will be dealt with. We have heard the abuse of the concept of democratic centralism, said by the secretary-general of the ANC [Mbalula], that the NEC’s decision cannot be questioned.
“Yes, he is right, but he applies this theory wrongly; it’s a democratic theory wherein you allow your structures to participate in such a critical moment, and then you summarise their decisions, and when you summarise their decisions, you provide a way forward.”
In the case of the GNU, said Mapaila, structures were never consulted, and thus democratic centralism cannot be invoked to protect an elite pact.
