SACP EASTERN CAPE PRESS STATEMENT

As the SACP in the Eastern Cape we have noted with disgust media reports (Daily Dispatch 30 June 2011) attributed to Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of Former President Thabo Mbeki. On the issue of our General Secretary, Dr Blade Nzimande who bought a 7 series BMW as allowed in the Ministerial handbook, we wish again reiterate our General Secretary's public apology on the matter as together with him we agreed that it was inappropriate to have bought such a vehicle given the challenges of poverty and unemployment faced by the majority of workers and the poor.

We however wish to add that the security of our leaders, especially our General Secretary is matter we do not wish to compromise within the acceptable levels applying sensitivity on the conditions of the majority of South Africans. This is because 17 years ago we lost our General Secretary, the late comrade Chris Hani and as the SACP we are not prepared to expose comrade Blade to any possible harm hence even before he went to parliament as Minister for High Education together with the state we have attended to his security detail. It is his profile as Communist Party leader not his size as person that exposes him to potential harm hence we take exception for Mr. Mbeki to reduce this sensitive matter into a joke.

Mr. Mbeki claims according to the reports that he has provided advice on the socio -economic challenges facing our country to all former heads of states of the democratic republic including his elder brother without success. We call upon Mr. Mbeki to desist from claiming monopoly of wisdom on the ills facing our society but be part of organized formations in business rather than project himself as a messiah above all of us. We do not need a black messiah or a white messiah, what we need is the unity of South Africans working together as people.

The education he has acquired while in the comfort of exile and the wealth he has acquired in the democratic South African brought about by the sacrifices of many must not blind him and impair his ability to recognize the capacity of others to think. Mr. Mbeki must liberate himself as he remains a prisoner of the Washington consensus for believing on a lean and min role of the state and the belief that private equals competence and inefficiency. There are many examples is the world with a successful public education and health system and the Republic of Cuba is an instructive example.

Statement issued by Xolile Nqatha SACP Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary, July 1 2011

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