The marxist-leninist class was set to begin at 5pm.
Over 15 members allegedly of the African National Congress have disrupted an SACP political class, tearing off the programme papers that had been put on the desks.
The South African Communist Party in the Hlanzeni region of Mpumalanga published a photo they took of one of the men in ANC T-shirts who they say is one of those who stormed, disrupted the weekly communist class at the Matsulu community hall.
The party on its Facebook page on Wednesday night said the “chap” together with the others started singing songs praising provincial ANC chairman David Mabuza, bringing the class to a halt.
The SACP holds political classes every Wednesday where they learn about the work of founder Karl Marx and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.
Other strugglers such as Chinese socialist founder Mao Zedong and Cuba’s Fidel Castro are quite often the subjects in SACP classes.
ANC secretary in the eHlanzeni region, Phazamisa Mathe, asked that the 013NEWS reporter wait until an investigation was done on what happened and whether the men were ANC members.
“I’ll do an investigation and tell you,” Mathe said on Thursday.
But those who attended the class said the men in ANC T-shirts outnumbered the about 10 “or a bit more” SACP members who had booked the hall to come study communism.
“The secretary of the region, Bhobert Nkosi, the treasurer Gabriel Mabuya and Tom Nkosi were there,” one communist attendee told 013NEWS on Thursday morning.
“What I saw is that we were just about to start and then the group stormed in, singing comrade Mabuza’s songs, about 15 or 16 of them and they tore off the programmes on the desks and we left,” the attendee said.
Nkosi confirmed the incident but said the SACP in the region still have to speak to the ANC.
“We’re having a meeting with them on Sunday as they are an interested party and then we will speak to the media,” Bhobert said.
This is not the first time the ANC and SACP clash in the Mbombela area.
In January 2015, a group of men wearing T-shirts stormed a lecture that was to be delivered by former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa on slain Mbombela council speaker Jimmy Mohlala.
Mohlala, an SACP regional leader, was killed in 2010 after he blew the lid on alleged corruption involving the construction of the Mbombela stadium.
(edited by MLM)
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