STATEMENT OF THE SACP POLITBURO

The Political Bureau of the SACP met in Gauteng today in the context of the deep crisis into which the reckless actions of President Zuma have once more plunged our ANC-led movement, our hard-won democratic institutions, and our country in general.

The recall from an overseas trip of comrades Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas while on a promotional tour in South Africa’s interests, and now the firing of these comrades and other well-performing ministers is more than regrettable. It is frankly outrageous, particularly while the worst performers in cabinet continue to enjoy presidential protection and even, in some cases, promotion.

This recklessness has provoked widespread concern and anger within the ANC itself, and across all sectors of our society. We have reached a decisive moment in which, in the considered view of the SACP leadership, Zuma must now resign.

The coincidence of the dramatic cabinet events with the desperate application this week in the Pretoria High Court by the Gupta-linked Vardospan company should not be missed. Vardospan brought an urgent application to force the Reserve Bank, the Registrar of Banks, and the Minister of Finance to allow it to take over ownership of the obscure Habib Bank.

The current owners had given them a deadline of today, 31 March, to settle the matter. Vardospan’s desperation is clearly linked to the closure of Gupta-related bank accounts by the major South African banks, the Bank of China, and now reportedly by their last remaining banking facility, the Indian headquartered Baroda Bank.

The Reserve Bank opposed the Vardospan application on the grounds that it has a responsibility to ensure the financial sustainability of the proposed deal. According to the Reserve Bank, Vardospan has failed to provide clarity on the source of their funding and to provide transparency on other Gupta-related companies, including the notorious Tegeta mining company involved in a dodgy deal with former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe.

The timing of Zuma’s cabinet reshuffling and the deepening banking troubles faced by the Guptas is not, therefore, fortuitous. Once more it lays bare a disturbing reality. Increasingly our country is being ruled not from the Union Buildings, but from the Gupta family compound. More and more, critical ANC decisions are being decided not by elected and collective structures in Luthuli House but in Saxonwold.

In the coming days the SACP will be meeting with our provincial structures, all our alliance partners and a wide range of social movements and formations. It is imperative that popular anger is mobilised and organised in constructive ways that unite South Africans of all persuasions and backgrounds in the defence of our country’s interests.

This is not a struggle against an individual. This is not a factional struggle. It is a struggle against a network of parasitism and patronage in defence of our hard-won democratic sovereignty. Let us roll back corporate capture of the state! Let us call for the South African passports and residential rights of the Guptas to be revoked immediately!

Let us call for the sacking of General Ntlemeza, an ex-Transkei security policeman, who many allege tortured our own comrades. Let us demand progress on the numerous stalled prosecutions and investigations. What has happened to the civil and criminal prosecutions recommended in regard to the Nkandla scandal? Let us ensure that the dodgy Tegeta deal is exposed.

Let us insist that those involved in the whole-sale ripping off of the public broadcaster, the SABC, and of key State Owned Corporations, including PRASA, Eskom, DENEL, and SAA are brought to book. Mainstream corporate outfits like Allan Gray and the Ruperts’ Remgro must own up to their profit-driven collusion with Cash Pay Master Services, Net1, and Grindrod in the exploitation of vulnerable social grant beneficiaries. Politicians and officials who have benefited from back-handers in all of this must be exposed.

Inevitably, SACP members who serve in executive positions in government are now being asked if they will resign. The PB’s instruction to these comrades is: Remain at your posts. This is not because there is any individual entitlement. You are serving in various capacities because of the support you enjoy across the ANC movement, because of your struggle credentials, and because of your performance in government. You have a responsibility to serve a massive constituency and the country at large – now more than ever. If you are fired at the behest of the Gupta network because of the SACP’s stand on these matters - so be it.

Statement issued by the SACP, 31 March 2017