Disciplinary Steps against Willie Madisha
The report of the SACP Disciplinary Committee on the case of Willie Madisha was tabled before the Central Committee on 9th May 2008.
The charges referred to the Disciplinary Committee by the Political Bureau of the SACP were essentially two fold:
- The first charge was that Madisha served for five years on the Central Committee, the Political Bureau and the Financial Committee of the SACP and never disclosed to the SACP that he had received a donation of R500 000.00 which he supposedly handed over to the SACP General Secretary. Yet this was a claim he was to make in public and in a sworn statement to the SAPS some five years after the supposed event. During a five year period Madisha participated in leadership collectives of the party in which financial statements reflecting, amongst other things, donations were tabled and approved. The first charge against Madisha was that his failure ever to raise this matter was a very serious case of negligence, a dereliction of his fiduciary duties in his capacity as a senior leader of the SACP.
- The second charge was that Madisha conducted himself in public as a member of the SACP in a manner that brought the SACP into disrepute. In publicly defending his claim about the donation he persistently went out of his way to cause damage to the standing of the SACP and its leadership.
In its report to the CC, the disciplinary committee also outlined protracted and ultimately fruitless endeavours to secure Madisha's cooperation. This included telephone calls, written correspondence, and a couriered letter. No response was ever received from Madisha. In fact Madisha seemed to have been consistently committed to deal with this matter only through public pronouncements, whilst deliberately avoiding and undermining internal SACP processes.
After deliberating on the charges, the disciplinary committee found that Madisha was guilty on both counts.
The central committee upheld the general findings of the disciplinary committee. It noted that these findings were not based on the substance of Madisha's allegations, which have been the subject of an SAPS investigation. As is publicly known, within the limits of its own capacities and legal powers, the SACP also established a task group, distinct from the disciplinary committee, to investigate the veracity of Madisha's claims. The task group was assisted by independent auditors. It conducted a comprehensive enquiry and could find no shred of evidence to uphold Madisha's story.
Meanwhile the SACP, including our general secretary, cde Blade Nzimande, have also given their full cooperation to the SAPS investigation into the matter. But the SAPS and NPA must speak on their own behalf (and frankly they have let this matter idle for too long), but we suspect they might have arrived at a similar conclusion as us, that there is no truth about this alleged ‘donation'.
On the first charge considered by the SACP disciplinary committee, the CC noted that if there was no merit in Madisha's claims around a R500,000 donation, then the courts should establish whether there has not been a serious case of perjury. If, however, in the unlikely event that there is some merit in Madisha's claims, then indeed, he has been guilty of gross dereliction of his fiduciary duties to the party between 2002 and mid-2007.
In the light of these findings, and noting the further aggravating factor of Madisha's persistent non-cooperation with the disciplinary committee, the CC could come to no other conclusion than that Madisha should be expelled from the SACP.
In unanimously reaching this conclusion, the CC wishes to underline that expulsion is not a matter that the SACP takes lightly. The SACP is committed to fostering a climate of comradely debate in its ranks and tolerance of constructive political difference within the parameters of our broad values, our programme, and our constitution.
Statement issued by the South African Communist Party May 12 2008
