Cronin+rejects+going+it+alone,+Wyndham+Hartley,+Business+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, 28 June 2006
=Cronin rejects going it alone=


 * Wyndham Hartley, Parliamentary Editor**

CAPE TOWN — South African Communist Party (SACP) deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin yesterday became the first senior party member to reject steering the party to go it alone in the elections, saying it was “foolhardy” to believe it could be done without destroying the tripartite alliance.

The SACP and the African National Congress (ANC) have been locked in a tense battle ever since the communists released a document suggesting that the presidency was centralised and had too much power. This was then followed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions unveiling five possible scenarios for its future relationship with the ruling party, among which was the possibility of walking out of the alliance and backing a workers’ party, possibly the SACP, to challenge the ANC at the polls.

The SACP last year set up a commission to investigate whether the party should go it alone in elections. This will be discussed at the SACP’s national congress in July next year.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club yesterday, Cronin said suggestions of going it alone emerged at the SACP’s special conference last year, but those in favour were quick to add that this was not about breaking the alliance. “There is this discussion about the wisdom or otherwise of having an independent electoral presence,” he said. “The idea that you can do this and still preserve a friendly alliance is utopian.

“Our core constituencies are exactly the same and we have to ask — why do it? We have about 73 MPs in the National Assembly. As a party, we have huge influence in Parliament.”

He said the SACP supported Jacob Zuma, as did the ANC.

“Obviously, he is in a serious predicament and we do not abandon individuals. We are not supporting him as a candidate for president and we are deeply concerned about some of the things that have been said by him.”

Many communists, Cronin said, particularly the youth, supported Zuma politically and presidentially. “I think it is wrong, it is a climate of grievance and irritation,” he said.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A223023**

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