ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has drawn the ire of the SACP over his comments about a cabinet reshuffle after the ANC's 55th national elective conference. 

In his political report to the conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa referred to a reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance with the SACP and Cosatu.

Earlier this week, Mbalula said failure to make changes to the cabinet would be “reckless” of Ramaphosa. However, the SACP believes it should not hear of this in the media. SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila on Friday raised concerns about a lack of consultation. 

“I hear comrade Fikile, he pronounces there are debates about the reshuffle of cabinet. I do not know about that. I am general secretary of the SACP, where does he get that mandate?” he said.  

“It is these things that are disrespectful to us. We will not accept these tendencies because why are we here? That somebody takes decisions on their own and imposes them on us?”  

Mapaila cautioned the ANC against backtracking on its commitment to the reconfiguration of the alliance, which included consultation. 

“It is not personal, it's about collective leadership. Let's exercise political leadership and collective accountability. If you do it on your own, account to the people and leave us out. If you want an alliance, you must show appreciation for the alliance.”

He was speaking in Soweto, where the SACP was commemorating the anniversary of the death of SACP leader and founder-member of Umkhonto we Sizwe Joe Slovo, who died on January 6 1995.

“In power you don't relax for one day without taking appropriate decisions that change things. We must exercise power to transform the lives of the masses,” Mapaila said.

“Power has not been exercised appropriately. We should not be complaining about political decisions that are not made.

“You can't have power for so long and the living conditions of the majority that voted you into power do not drastically change. It's the capitalist structure of power that we have not tackled. We have not exercised power appropriately because capital remains intact.”

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