SA Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande has urged tripartite alliance leaders in government to put aside the fear of losing their jobs and speak out against wrongdoing.

Speaking at the party's 26th commemoration of Chris Hani's assassination in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, yesterday, Nzimande said: "Wrong things must be raised inside the organisation [ANC] so that they are addressed. Today, let's speak the truth. We are scared to raise wrongdoing in the organisation because we think with our stomachs.

"The difficulty we are in today is because many of us can't stand up and point out [the] wrong things that are happening in our own movement. We must raise those things. If we don't, our movement will perish."

Hani, who was general secretary of the SACP and an Umkhonto weSizwe commander, was killed outside his home on April 10 1993.

Nzimande, who is also the minister of transport, broke ranks with former president Jacob Zuma after he spoke out against the Gupta family.

As a result, Nzimande was sacked from his position as minister of higher education in 2017.

President Cyril Ramaphosa reinstated him into government as transport minister after he was elected head of state in February last year.

Nzimande warned the ANC that it could lose power if it failed to address internal crises. "Part of the things that must be corrected are factionalism, state capture, corruption, gatekeeping, populism and anti-intellectualism.

"These are all 'siblings' and, unless we deal with these, comrade Chris [Hani] would have died in vain," Nzimande said to a round of applause.

He also hit out at ANC Youth League members from the Free State who interrupted the book launch of Pieter-Louis Myburgh's Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule's Web of Capture on Tuesday evening.

"This book of late about our SG [secretary-general]... they have a right to raise objections and criticise that book, we give them that. But they have no right, in our name, to go and disrupt the launch of the book and threaten to burn it."

Nzimande accused the group of suffering from anti-intellectualism, adding that their behaviour risked destroying the movement if it was not condemned.

Magashule, who also attended the commemoration, distanced himself from those who wanted to burn the book. "It's unfortunate that comrades burned this book," he said.