Leaders of South Africa’s Communist Party (SACP) on Tuesday expressed discomfort with the ruling African National Congress party’s redeployment of disgraced former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede who is facing fraud charges on a US$12-million waste disposal tender deal.
Gumede was last week appointed to sit in the KwaZulu-Natal Province’s legislature to the surprise of the SACP in spite of the ANC’s own standing rules that such a cadre should not be deployed until she is cleared by the courts.
SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said that despite being part of the tripartite alliance with the ANC and Congress of South African Trade Unions, it was not “consulted” on the decision to redeploy Gumede.
“We wouldn’t be complaining if we had been consulted. But we were neither alerted nor consulted on this deployment. We usually deploy and recall together,” Mthembu said.
The SACP said Gumede’s appointment to the regional legislature was “shocking and unfortunate”, and had requested a meeting with ANC leaders in the province to discuss the issue.
The SACP said it would put pressure on the ANC in the province to rethink its decision to redeploy Gumede to the provincial legislature.
“We expect the leadership of the ANC to be sensitive to the national outcry on the deployment of Zandile Gumede,” Mthembu said.
Mthembu said the SACP did not want to see its relationship with the ANC deteriorating and would therefore raise its concerns in a yet to be scheduled meeting.
Gumede, out on a US$3,000 bail on the fraud charges related to a waste removal tender, became a member of the legislature last Wednesday amid outrage and criticism.
While the SACP said its position on Gumede was not personal, the party recalled that the former mayor’s political career has been marred by controversy and that her current “flawed deployment is a matter of serious concern.”
Gumede’s redeployment has also been condemned by President Cyril Ramaphosa himself, leaving observers to wonder who was really behind her appointment when the head of the ruling party had no knowledge of the move.
NM/jn/APA