The SACP has questioned the timing of the “farmgate” allegations against president Cyril Ramaphosa, saying they are part of factionalist battles aimed at weakening the ANC and influencing the outcome of the party’s elective conference in December where Ramaphosa is expected to seek a second term.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande on Thursday the allegations and the motives behind them had nothing to do with fighting crime and corruption.
“It is clear that some individuals, others from within the ranks of our own movement, have gotten into the habit of using their state positions, past or present for purposes of pursuing factionalist motives,” Nzimande said during a report back to more than 400 SACP delegates.
“The timing and manner in which this matter was raised has all the hallmarks of pursuing counter-revolutionary and divisive intentions aimed at weakening the ANC and its leadership of the government.”
Earlier in 2022, ratings agency Fitch warned that the allegations — first raised in June by Arthur Fraser, the former state security head and a close ally of former president Jacob Zuma — could derail Ramaphosa’s bid for a second term and delay his reform agenda which seeks to revive the economy.
Fraser laid charges of corruption, money laundering and kidnapping against Ramaphosa, claiming he had played a central part in concealing the theft of millions in foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo in 2020.
Though Ramaphosa has maintained his innocence, he is to appear before the ANC integrity commission to account for the incident. Ramaphosa has admitted that the burglary occurred but has disputed that $4m was stolen. He said the stolen money, which he had intended to bank, was the proceeds of the sale of cattle.
Nzimande’s comments come as the SACP weighs its options regarding remaining in the tripartite alliance with the ANC and Cosatu amid the governing party’s dwindling electoral support, or to contest elections on its own.
The outgoing SACP secretary-general warned that factionalism in the ANC, which is linked to money, tenders and accumulation, should not be permitted to creep into the SACP to prevent it collapsing.
Nzimande said the ANC’s factional fights have weakened it over the past three decades, leading to its ousting as the governing party in economic hubs such as the Western Cape and diminishing its majority elsewhere.
“We lost Western Cape with our eyes wide open because comrades were fighting. We [won’t] allow that in the communist party [because] not even 10 or five years from now we will begin to write the obituary of the SACP,” Nzimande said.
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