S Africa communist leaders oppose split with ANC

JOHANNESBURG, July 13 (Reuters) The leadership of South Africa's communist party has signalled it wants to stay allied to the ruling African National Congress rather than contest elections independently, as proposed by some of its members.

Disenchantment with the centrist, pro-market policies of South African President Thabo Mbeki has fuelled support among the SACP rank-and-file for a split from the coalition that has governed since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

A proposal to run a separate slate of candidates in the 2009 elections was put forth at the party's national congress this week but quickly sidelined by the SACP's powerful central committee, which recommended that no action be taken.

SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande dismissed the idea as something favoured by the country's business elite, who would like to see government policy even less influenced by communists and the country's powerful trade union movement.

''These are ideologues who reduce politics to the market place of election day choice,'' Nzimande said yesterday in a speech to delegates at the congress in Port Elizabeth.

''Those who were nowhere to be seen during decades of struggle now preach to the SACP about having the 'courage to stand on its own','' he said, according to a text of the speech.

Although the party's membership has ballooned to about 50,000 in the past five years, SACP leaders have questioned whether it would have the resources and support to remain a vibrant force in the political arena.

Through its alliance with the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), SACP officials sit in the cabinet as well as on the ANC's National Executive Committee, the party's top decision-making body.

Splitting from the alliance would force Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils among others to either quit the government or renounce their party affiliations.

Analysts believe the SACP is likely, instead, to try to tilt the ANC-led alliance toward the left by pressuring it to embrace nationalisation and greater redistribution of income to fight poverty and unemployment.

Nationalising petrochemical firm Sasol and Mittal Steel SA were among the ideas proposed by the SACP leadership this week.

Communists and trade unionists have sharply criticised Mbeki for moving away from the ANC's pre-apartheid socialist roots and putting in place policies they say have disproportionately favoured the business community, foreign investors and a small black elite.

They also have been critical of Mbeki, who himself flirted with communism during the anti-apartheid era, for sacking popular former Deputy President Jacob Zuma in 2005 during an arms procurement scandal.

The ANC is expected to choose a new party president at a congress in December, with the winner likely to become South Africa's president when Mbeki steps down in 2009.

Mbeki is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third term as national president, although he could try to remain on as head of the ANC, which would give him a large say over the direction of the alliance.

The SACP and COSATU have been pushing for a radically different type of leader, possibly Zuma. Their efforts, however, have antagonised Mbeki, who warned the allies last month at an ANC policy conference not to meddle in his party's affairs.

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