Unfair to expect ANC alliance partners to rally behind wrongdoing: Nzimande

It is unjustifiable to expect partners of the ANC Alliance to rally behind wrongdoing and the failure to hold those committing wrongdoing accountable‚ South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande said on Sunday.

Addressing the main rally of the SACP’s Red October Campaign 2017-2018 in Clermont‚ Durban‚ in KwaZulu-Natal‚ Nzimande said it was also unfair to expect alliance partners to support the decisions they were not consulted on‚ and more so factional‚ divisive and wrong decisions.

He said the best way to honour honour the democratic legacy of the late ANC president OR Tambo and his revolutionary contribution to the struggle‚ was to reconfigure the alliance.

“The manner in which the Alliance functions will‚ going forward‚ not be able to hold together the unity of its components and historical support base‚” he warned.

“It is unprincipled‚ for instance‚ to expect Alliance partners to campaign for the ANC to win elections only for the ANC alone or worse for an individual or faction to make decisions.”

In order for the alliance to survive‚ it had to be reconfigured to function in accordance with democratic principles. The strength of the alliance lay in internal democracy and in building democratic people’s power.

“Unilateralism and authoritarianism are an antithesis of the Alliance and will destroy it.

“The importance of consensus-seeking consultation cannot be overemphasised!

“Similarly‚ the Alliance must be visible both in the content of the decisions made and the people selected and deployed to implement those legislative and policy decisions. The Alliance must be visible in monitoring implementation‚ performance assessment and holding accountable those deployed in the state. If we are an alliance we must be seen working together‚” Nzimande said.

He added that those who had a problem in the alliance working together‚ who took decisions outside of the principles of democratic consensus-seeking consultation‚ collective leadership and accountability‚ could not be trusted when they talked about the importance of the alliance.