SACP brands looting ‘counter-revolutionary conspiracy’

The SACP’s general-secretary Blade Nzimande delivered the party’s centenary statement on Sunday.

Nzimande believes there a conspiracy at the core of the unrest.

“The signs point to the strong likelihood of the planning and triggering of the attempted uprising coming from renegade elements in intelligence and related circles. It was from within this inner circle that key strategic targets appear to have been selected.

“It is notable that the first actions did not involve looting, but rather arson, and notably the destruction of some 40 trucks on the N3 to block this critical artery. It is unlikely that the inner conspiratorial core would have been directly involved in these arson attacks, which followed the pattern of earlier, criminal attacks on the N3 directed, against non-South African truck drivers.

“It is highly probable that the July truck and other arson attacks were carried out by the same or similar criminal elements associated with mafia-style, so-called ‘business forums’ seeking to muscle in on existing businesses. These criminal elements have been particularly active in KZN.”

Nzimande says crediting the so-called radical economic transformation faction within the ANC for the unrest plays directly into the hands of the conspirators.

“We reject this utterly simplistic characterisation. The so-called ‘JZ’ or self-styled ‘RET’ grouping is really and largely networks of corrupt and opportunist elements, themselves facing the prospect of jail time, and relying on war-chests accumulated through the looting of public resources.

“There is no serious political programme uniting them, beyond the threadbare, ritualised incantation of unprocessed, empty and demagogic slogans. They are what one left-leaning British politician described as ‘resolutionaries’, those who wage factional battles over decorative slogans rammed demagogically through conferences, in preference to having a serious debate on policy options, strategy and tactics.”

At the same time, Nzimande expressed the SACP’s support for the Ramaphosa-led leadership and the defence of the rule of law and the constitution.

“We support it and work with it in the struggle to reconfigure the Alliance as an effective force on the ground. But we reserve the right to be critical, and indeed we are critical, especially of the persisting timidity in breaking the shackles of a self-imposed, neo-liberal austerity, which, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the mass destruction of lives and security effected by the failed.”

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