Come on, Blade Nzimande! You are too young to be suffering from amnesia. Besides, as general secretary of the SA Communist Party, minister of Higher Education and a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee, you hold responsible positions. You can't afford to be forgetful. There are too many important things to remember.
Yet look at the confusion and trouble you have caused. When the SACP held its congress in Polokwane last month, you told journalists: "We (SACP) are very clear that we are not an opposition party. We take co-responsibility for governance." The headline on the report was "SACP 'co-rules SA', says Blade Nzimande". This meant South Africa is governed not by the ANC, but by the Tripartite Alliance, which consists of the ANC, Cosatu and your party, the SACP. The "very clear" point you made was that Cosatu and the SACP are not subordinate to the ANC.
Well, you waited a whole month before you denied that this is what you said. You then declared, emphatically, that you had not called for "co-governance." You started a huge row in Alliance politics. No, said the ANC, there was no "co-governance." At the end of the day, the ANC was the boss.
Why did it take you exactly a month to deny what you had declared so clearly? Why the U-turn? Why did you issue a reassurance that the SACP had never demanded to be allowed to "co-govern" the country?
Here are your words: "I don't know where the confusion comes from about the alliance saying they want to co-govern. No one in the alliance has ever spoken about co-governing. I don't know who coined the term. It's people figment of their imagination."
Is this going to be your reputation in future? You started a fight, and then ran away from it?
Because by now the damage has been done. President Jacob Zuma himself weighed in. He told the SABC that the ANC would co-operate, but not "co-govern," with its Alliance partners. "Once somebody feels that there should be co-governance that is when the debate must come...because we've got one President. You can't co-govern." Zuma explained that the political alliance between the ANC, SAPC and Cosatu, with its discussions and co-operation, would "absolutely" continue. "But you must also not mistake the consultations and discussions with co-governance. Once you begin to think that once we meet and discuss the issues that is co-governance then you are missing the point."
Zuma warned that including the SACP into more ANC governance could lead to the weakening of the SACP. "There are matters that the party (ANC) has to take as a party." The SACP as a party had its own ideology....We [the ANC] can either blunt the party from its objective, because we as a party, the ANC, approach things differently. That is a different thing than having a central structure that governs everything...because then it would affect the independence of the partners."
Blade, you see what turmoil you have created? This comes after the SACP congress booed and heckled the president of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, who is now on the warpath. It also comes after much earlier reports that the SACP was organising a "communist takeover" of the ANC.
Who would bet on the SACP surviving the coming clash with the ANC and the ANCYL? The SACP admits it has leading members in its ranks (including its president?) who think the SACP should break away and go it alone. If it did so, the main prop under Cosatu would be jerked out, and that would be the end of the Tripartite Alliance. This would leave governance solely in the hands of the ANC, under Zuma presumably.
From South Africa's point of view, this might even be a desirable solution. So whether Blade should be flagellated for causing so much instability in the country, or congratulated on rearranging the political jigsaw so thoroughly that a different South Africa will emerge, is a question we might all ponder on.
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