He says the President lied when he reshuffled his cabinet.
Now SACP’s deputy secretary Solly Mapaila says he has deposed an affidavit and is taking President Jacob Zuma head-on.
He says the president lied to the SACP as an Alliance partner of the reasons why he was reshuffling his cabinet.
The cabinet reshuffle caused an outcry when Zuma sacked Pravin Gordhan replacing him with Melusi Gigaba as finance minister. Gordhan’s deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, also got fired.
Several other ministers were also axed in the reshuffle of the Thursday night of 30 March 2017, including Tina Joemat-Peterson, Dipuo Peters, Ngoako Ramatlhodi and Derek Hanekom.
“You can’t be in the revolutionary movement and not be honest,” Mapaila said of Zuma on Sunday night while part of a panel discussing corruption at Lilliesleaf Farm.
“I have noticed many lies being told by the President,” he said.
“That’s why I can say now in public for the first time that I’ve deposed an affidavit. He lied to us, or how could he tell us the truth and lie to the public. So I had to take that step which I felt is important that we bring him to the commitment of our movement,” said Mapaila.
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Mapaila took over from Jeremy Cronin when he was elected as the first deputy secretary at the party’s 14 elective congress in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.
Blade Nzimande returned his post as the leader of the SACP with Senzeni Zokwana re-elected chairman and Joyce Moloi-Moropa treasurer.
Cronin stepped down after 2 decades at the helm of the party as first deputy secretary.
Chris Matlaku took over as the part’s new 2nd deputy secretary with Thulas Nxesi coming once more to service as deputy national chairman.
The party took the resolution to contest elections independently of the ANC but leader Nzimande said this may not happen in 2019 because for now they are still going to consult with Cosatu.
“We have not engaged Cosatu seriously on this. The communist party can never
make a decision to contest when we don’t have a very firm backing from Cosatu and workers,” Nzimande said.
“We can’t just go and say ‘we are contesting come’, we can’t. We need to have a very structured discussion to say congress has this feeling, what are your views?” Nzimande said.
(edited by ZK)
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