The South Africa Communist Party (SACP) stated they were shocked that former president Jacob Zuma had allowed persons into his cabinet when he knew they were spies all along.
Zuma previously at the Zondo-led commission accused former Cabinet minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi of being an apartheid-era spy and that Siphiwe Nyanda, a former SANDF general and president of the uMkhonto weSizwe National Council, corroborated with a spy called Ralph who had tried to assassinate the former president.
However, the SACP lashed back at a press conference with the Ahamed Kathrada Foundation on 18th July, stating that Zuma’s statement was reckless and irresponsible.
“On those allegations of ANC leaders being spies, we felt that it was reckless and irresponsible utterances from him,” said Solly Mapaila, deputy secretary general to SACP.
“We were quite shocked that a president who led the ANC and who was deputy president before, would allow these comrades [that he accused of being spies] into his Cabinet when he knew all along they were spies. How? It was quite unfair of him to utter such accusations,” observed Mapaila.
Mapaila blamed Zuma for trying to divert attention from the state capture inquiry led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, “We indicated from the beginning that we must not allow any diversion from the context of that commission.”
“The Zondo-led commission is dealing with matters of state capture and corruption against certain individuals who allowed the State to be abused and captured, and not only the Gupta family…that is what the former president should have been concerned about and deal with those questions,” he said.
Mapaila also commended the work done against corruption by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, while defending the minister against remarks that he was anti-black.
“Disappointingly, some of the people in state-owned enterprises who are very educated feel that fighting corruption is a fight against blackness,” Mapaila noted.
“This narrative that Gordhan is anti-black in order to perpetuate corruption in state-owned enterprises is completely unacceptable,” he said, “If we allow a person like Pravin to fall, all of us will fall one by one and corruption will never be defeated.”
The SACP alongside the Ahamed Kathrada Foundation and at least 24 other civil organisations are planning to hold a public rally next week at the Johannesburg city hall against the state capture fightback.
