Mapaila's ANC membership should be revoked - ANCYL
19 July 2017
Johannesburg - The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) wants South African Communist Party's first deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila's ANC membership terminated.
This after he appeared on a panel debating corruption alongside Save South Africa convenor Sipho Pityana and ANC Member of Parliament Makhosi Khoza over the weekend.
The ANCYL's Secretary General Njabulo Nzuza said Mapaila's actions undermined the strength of the alliance.
"He has decided that he must lead a charge to serve divorce papers on the ANC. It's not a surprise that he appears on platforms with people who criticise the ANC," said Nzuza.
The Umkhonto WeSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) shared the league's unhappiness of seeing Mapaila next to Pityana, who made an impassionate plea for President Jacob Zuma to step down in 2016.
Pityana has since started a campaign to get more people behind the call for the president to be removed.
Mapaila has been strongly criticised by members of the alliance including Zuma for appearing at one of the anti-Zuma marches staged across the country this year.
The MKMVA told News24 on Monday that Mapaila's appearance with Pityana on Sunday was proof that they had been in "talks".
"We as the MKMVA see it as the beginning of forming a new party. They start like this," said MKMVA president Kebby Maphatsoe.
Maphatsoe claimed that the association’s views were supported by comments made by former SACP general secretary Jeremy Cronin during the communist party’s 14th Congress last week.
"All these things we are aware of where they are driving. It's clear there's a party that they are going to form, watch this space," he warned.
'Declaration of war'
Maphatsoe hit out at Khoza saying she had been reprimanded by the ANC.
"It's clear that she has taken a position to say, 'dismiss me'," said Maphatsoe of the outspoken ANC MP.
Khoza, who has written to the Speaker of Parliament asking for a motion of no confidence to be conducted under a secret ballot, has been vocal in her disapproval of the president.
"She has been attacking the ANC, if you listen to her, [she] just didn't mention him by name, it is clear that she wants the ANC to dismiss her," he said.
Another leader, Western Cape provincial executive committee member Jabu Mfusi also took to social media to call Mapaila's appearance a "declaration of war".
"We respect and love President Zuma. I served with Cde [comrade] Solly Mapaila in the ANC Youth League. I respect his leadership position in the vanguard working class party. Sharing a platform with Dr Makhosi Khoza; Save South Africa rebel is a declaration of war," he wrote on his Facebook.
He also called on members of the SACP who were part of Zuma's cabinet to resign.
During the panel discussion, Mapaila also revealed that he had submitted an affidavit to the inspector general of intelligence accusing Zuma of lying about the midnight cabinet reshuffle where former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas were fired.
It was widely reported that the president used an intelligence report to make the decision, which three of the ANC's top six spoke out against.
He said he didn't understand why the SACP leader brought it up. Zuma based the decision on an intelligence report which he has since denied ever existed.
"[The] issue of Pravin Gordhan was resolved a long time ago, why is Solly Mapaila now saying that he is going to open up to the inspector general, you are starting something," said Maphatsoe.
Strong alliance
He said the ANC's policy conference affirmed that a strong alliance was needed, but blamed individuals like Mapaila for making that hard to achieve.
"At the policy conference we could have done that... Let the party go its own way, but because we want a strong alliance, we resolved that they must go and build a strong alliance. When they start doing these things you can't keep quiet and wait for surprises," said Maphatsoe.
The SACP, however, has dismissed criticism, with its spokesperson Alex Mashilo calling Maphatsoe a "hypocrite".
"The platform was not organised by the SACP to start with, it's not the SACP which issued invitations on who must come there; who must not come," he said. Mashilo said the SACP was invited to attend and did not demand to know who else would participate in the debate."We did not demand to know who else is coming, but [those] who came through are ANC members, one of them is an ANC member in Parliament," he said.
Mashilo called out Maphatsoe, who had previously said issues must be debated at meetings.
''If they came to the meeting we invited him to, he would not be speaking rubbish... Obviously he is ill-informed...The least he can do is contact the SACP and ask the SACP for clarification so that he can make a comment," said Mashilo.
The SACP spokesperson said Maphatsoe made comments as if Pityana was invited to a party gathering.
"He himself, Kebby Maphatsoe, participates on ANN7 with questionable characters and we [have] never written a statement about him," said Mashilo.
He also dismissed the league's calls for Mapaila's membership from the ANC to be terminated, describing it as factional battles and an utter misunderstanding of how the alliance works.
