Bhekisisa Mncube says by virtue of the fact that Isaac Luthuli’s works in Nzimande’s Department, his attack on ANC President is a simple case of one singing for his supper,  rather loudly.  

IN his latest egoistic rant (Politicsweb 14 December 2015) titled, “Jacob Zuma is indeed a liability,” Isaac Luthuli lays bare his high levels of political miseducation. Not only is Luthuli’s ill-fated attempt to offer analysis of our political environment naïve, but, it also demonstrates that he is nothing but a political pipsqueak deployed for no other reason other than to sow division within the ranks of the African National Congress (ANC). 

Luthuli’s attack on the President is a clear case of one singing for his supper. He shows his hand when he alleges that the President is about to fire the Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande. Luthuli writes: “We are fully aware that the next stop will be Cde Blade Nzimande as you are awaiting for students protests beginning of the year 2016. I’ve been observing that you don’t value Cde Nzimande.”

In addition to poor analytical skills, Luthuli’s English writing skills, “leave me cold.” To be honest, Luthuli’s writing is gibberish. Therefore, it is difficult to distill his main argument.

To use the word “liability” in the same sentence as the name of the ANC President (when you claim to be a comrade) is to put it mildly - shows total disrespect – not only to the members of the ANC, the entire leadership of the ANC but also to the people of South Africa.

In realpolitik lingua franca, it’s politically egregious and myopic. Zuma holds the offices of the President of the ANC and Republic after being elected and deployed by the ANC respectively. It is therefore the ANC that may pronounce on Zuma’s quality of leadership and possibly recall him when he becomes, “a liability”.

Luthuli’s lament that it’s time, “to call a spade a spade not a big spoon,” is a feeble attempt to speak truth to power when in fact he is doing the exact opposite. It reminds me of the prophetic words of the longest serving visionary and revolutionary Commander in Chief and the late President of the ANC Comrade OR Tambo who warned us of the danger posed by the wedge-drivers.

In his closing remarks to the watershed ANC Morogoro Conference, Tambo warned us thus: "Beware of the wedge-driver, the man who creeps from ear to ear, carrying a bag full of wedges, driving them in between you and the next man, between a group and another, a man who goes round creating splits and divisions. Beware of the wedge-driver, comrades. Watch his poisonous tongue". Tambo correctly argued that the enemy was within, as he concluded: "Beware of the enemy within. Remain vigilant at all times!"

Luthuli says boldly that President Zuma is a liability. He writes: “We expected that the President was going to prove that he is indeed not a liability by condemning the ANCYL pronouncements and further call them into Disciplinary Committee (DC) as he did with Julius Malema.”

Apparently in Luthuli’s warped view of reality; President Zuma must haul before the DC any member of the ANC who dare criticizes the Young Communist League. 

Let us get a few facts out of the way. The Young Communist League of South Africa is not a league of the ANC; hence it has no business dictating to the ANC how it ought to deal with its deployed cadres including its President. In the spirit of congeniality the ANC has never interfered with the internal processes of the Young Communist League of South Africa.

Some among us regard the Young Communist League as part of the broader Mass Democratic Movement. By virtue of being the league of the South African Communist Party, we therefore hold the Young Communist League in high regard as a preparatory school for the next layer of leadership in our society. We expect from any member of the Young Communist League some nuanced analysis (dialectical materialism) of the challenges facing our country not insults and disparaging remarks about the ANC President or any member of the Tripartite Alliance.

As comrades, rule number 1 is that we must close ranks in the face of relentless attack on the people’s movement by forces hostile to its programmes. It therefore came as a shock to my political system when Luthuli’s diatribe made it into the public domain. In fact, Luthuli’s tirade, “offends my sense of justice”.

In conclusion, let me posit that clearly Luthuli missed a huge chunk of his political classes and obviously bunked his English lessons. We can safely conclude that Luthuli is indeed a “liability” to the Young Communist League of South Africa. We expect from the leadership of the Young Communist League a critic of the prevailing economic conditions that has left our people poor, uneducated and at the mercy of the markets not grade two populist rhetoric.

Bhekisisa Mncube is the Director of Writing at the Ministry of Basic Education. He writes in his personal capacity.