City Press.png SACP members in KZN want to contest election Hlengiwe Nhlabathi, City Press, Johannesburg, 31 January 2016 A decision by the SA Communist Party (SACP) not to contest elections on its own has come back to haunt the leadership as disgruntled members in KwaZulu-Natal threaten to go out on their own anyway. The SACP's politburo meeting in Johannesburg on Friday heard that disgruntled ANC members in the province had also joined the call for the party to contest state power. The renewed lobby - which had been defeated at a special national congress last year - had been prompted by concerns that the selection of councillor candidates was not fair and transparent, particularly in eThekwini in Durban. Gunned down Among the reasons cited as evidence that the SACP should change tact was this week's violence in eThekwini's Ward 4 in Inchanga, where two SACP members were gunned down during a meeting that was held to discuss the alleged factional manner in which the ANC conducted the selection of councillors. SACP and ANC top brass were set to visit Inchanga after complaints that no action had been taken by the leadership to resolve grievances raised since tensions played out in public ahead of the ANC's provincial conference in October and the eThekwini regional conference in November. Themba Mthembu.jpg KwaZulu-Natal SACP secretary Themba Mthembu told City Press that frustrated members of the ANC were "begging the SACP to consider contesting the polls". "It's something that is being looked at, especially by disgruntled members of the ANC who have asked the party to stand on its own," he said. At the SACP special national congress last July, some branches of the SACP unsuccessfully tried to lobby the leadership to consider contesting state power. Ordinary members of the SACP argued that the party needed to end its reliance on the ANC to govern. But the final resolution was to establish a committee to assess the party's options. However, the growing frustration among SACP members in KwaZulu-Natal - as well as among some ANC members - resuscitated the call for the SACP to field its own candidates or support independents. Mthembu said the committee would hold its first sitting in the second week of February. "That matter will be raised there. The issue of state power is ongoing. The pressure is just too much going to local elections. Comrades are really frustrated." Gwede Mantashe ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has dismissed talk that there was a crisis in the nomination process, saying there were only a few isolated incidents But there were already warnings that if the ANC - as the leader of the alliance - did not act urgently, it risked losing the province to independent candidates. Insiders said leaders at the Friday SACP meeting raised questions about the way the alliance was functioning. Another SACP leader said there was a decision to schedule a meeting with the ANC to also voice concern about the nomination process. Alex Mashilo SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo said party members could only stand for elections through the alliance. "We want to ensure that we move ahead in unity. As part of ensuring that, the SACP nationally will be intervening as a matter of urgency. This includes engaging within the alliance. We have heard what the provincial leadership is saying and the most important issue raised was the lack of intervention at a national level," he said on Friday after the meeting. Mthembu said the only way to force them to reverse a provincial executive committee decision not to continue to participate in the ANC processes would be when all structures abided by the constitution and guidelines on nomination of councillors. From: <http://city-press.news24.com/News/sacp-members-in-kzn-want-to-contest-elect ion-20160130> http://city-press.news24.com/News/sacp-members-in-kzn-want-to-contest-electi on-20160130 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
