South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande took a swipe at the Democratic Alliance on Saturday saying that the party had been described by former president Nelson Mandela himself as a “party of white bosses and black stooges” and asked why the party did not put that in its TV adverts.

The SACP boss‚ who was addressing a rally in Nelson Mandela Bay commemorating the party’s 95th anniversary‚ was alluding to the DA’s use of excerpts from recordings of the late Mandela calling for peace and justice in its election ads‚ which has raised the ire of the ANC and its tripartite partners as well as members of the Mandela family.

Nzimande said the SACP would not allow “reactionaries‚ like the DA‚ to expropriate and white-wash our memory of Tata Nelson Rohlihlahla Mandela”.

“Yes‚ Madiba rightly belongs to all South Africans‚ and to all of humanity. But Madiba is not a tradable commodity‚ a Madiba-lite stripped of his revolutionary history‚ stripped of his proud‚ inclusive African nationalism‚ stripped of his solidarity with Cuba and the peoples of Palestine‚ stripped of his hatred of oppression‚ stripped of his status as a founder member and leader of Mkhonto we Sizwe‚ stripped of the people’s movement that forged him‚” Nzimande asserted.

He added: “Let us remind those expropriators in the DA that it was Madiba himself in 2000 at a COSATU rally who described the DA as ‘a party of white bosses and black stooges’. Why doesn’t the DA put that quote in their TV adverts?”