The New Age, Johannesburg, 12 May 2017

ANC, SACP relationship, role of courts up for debate at Political Bureau BONOLO SELEBANO

A MEETING of the SACP Political Bureau sits today with a raft of contentious political issues to analyse. The SACP national spokesperson Alex Mashilo said the ANC should “get its house in order” so as to not allow the opposition benches to prey off its internal weaknesses for their partisan ends. “If the ANC and the alliance can succeed in rectifying our own internal weaknesses, we would narrow down the space for external forces to find an entry point. “It’s no use crying foul about what

others are doing if we are opening the space for them to do that. Why do we make ourselves vulnerable and then cry foul when others are exploiting our vulnerability?” Mashilo’s comments come against the background of a mounting legal challenge for President Jacob Zuma to justify his decision to institute a Cabinet reshuffle, that led to the axing of former finance minister Pravin Gordhan. While Zuma is appealing a North Gauteng High Court ruling that he explain the rationale for the reshuffle, the Helen Suzman Foundation upped the ante by approaching the Consti-

tutional Court in a bid to have Zuma’s firing of Gordhan set aside. Mashilo, making reference to numerous court cases the government had lost, said the Nkandla scandal, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa)’s grants payment bungle and the nuclearbuild programme among others, said the trend of government losing court cases was indicative of the state failing to live up to the principle of good governance. “When you are losing one court case after another, it clear that you are doing something wrong. Why do you then blame people for going to court.

The government lost Nkandla, Sassa, the nuclear and the list goes on.” Mashilo, said while the SACP was mindful that there were was a trend of political parties and civil society organisations abusing the courts, the party said there should be clear distance between people abusing the courts and seeking relief from the judiciary for genuine reasons. “The SACP has a problem with the abuse of the courts but we do not have a problem when people go to court for the right reasons. We can’t conflate the two. If people never went to court on Sassa, Nkandla and the SABC what would have happened?

The rot would have continued.” Mashilo said that the SACP had been calling for action against former Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza and nothing was done until the courts had to intervene. “The SACP’s plea for good governance fell on deaf ears until there was parliamentary intervention. “Others went to court and they were both successful, concerning the Hawks and the SABC. “Were it not for the interventions and the reliefs provided by the courts, the rot would have continued to deepen,” he said. [email protected]

REFLECTIVE: Alex Mashilo. PICTURE: TWITTER