16 July 2002
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is flabbergasted that the Spokesperson of the African National Congress (ANC), Comrade Smuts Ngonynama, misused the platform of yesterday's official press conference of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC to assassinate the character of our Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Cronin. In fact, Comrade Ngonyama's statement is unwarranted.
This unfortunate statement plays directly into the hands of capitalist media and other counter-revolutionary forces in our country who are unhappy that the SACP has grown and consolidated since its 10th Congress in 1998 and that it is marching emboldened and stronger as it holds its 11th Congress at the end of July. In fact, these forces are extremely disappointed that this 11th SACP Congress is actually about the consolidation of transformation and the strengthening of our revolutionary alliance. Over the last few weeks, this media has sought to dig for controversy from Congress discussion documents and the process to nominate leaders of the SACP - see for example the articles by Jaspreet Kindra in the Mail and Guardian of 12 July and articles by Sechaba Nkosi in the 07 July and 14 July editions of the Sunday Times.
Comrade Ngonyama+IBk-s statement undermines the spirit, letter and content of the Ekurhuleni Summit and other recent meetings of the ANC-SACP-COSATU-SANCO Alliance. All these meetings established the principle that any media statement attributed to any alliance partner must be double-checked with the relevant component before any partner of the Alliance issues a public response. Without having confirmed the truthfulness and the context of the Sunday Times article which quotes the SACP Deputy General Secretary out of context, Comrade Ngonyama saw it fit to undermine this important principle of the ANC in particular and the Alliance in general. Had Comrade Ngonyama bothered to contact the SACP to confirm the contents and context of the Sunday Times report, he would have discovered that the interview which the SACP Deputy General Secretary gave to Irish socialist historian, Dr. Helena Sheehan, was actually conducted more than eight months ago as a personal history and record of the political life of the SACP Deputy General Secretary and was not meant for publication.
As a matter of fact, the Sunday Times article of 14 July (to which we have asked for a right of reply) is a shoddy piece of journalism which sensationalises and decontextualises the interview with Dr. Sheehan. In order to address the false insinuations in the Sunday Times article, earlier today, the SACP officially informed the ANC of the content and context of this interview.
The SACP believes that it is incumbent upon all Alliance partners to rise above factionalist labelling imputing conspiratorial motives.
The SACP emphatically rejects the imputation that the SACP Deputy General Secretary is posturing for leadership positions in the ANC and the SACP. Throughout our 80 years of existence, SACP members and leaders have characterised by discipline, revolutionary morality, sacrifice and hard work. Posturing and factionalist leadership contests are foreign to the SACP. It can only be the enemies of our revolution who are unhappy that preparations for our 11th Congress have not been dominated by such disputes but rather they have been characterised by comradely and principled discussion on how to advance the struggle for socialism, how to build the alliance and a better life for all our people.
The SACP appeals to all alliance partners that we should not allow the media to divide us. The SACP prefers that the it and the ANC seek ways of addressing this matter outside of the media.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel 011 339 3621
Fax 011 339 4244
Cell 083 651 0271
Email mazibuko@sacp.org.za