THE furious dispute that has erupted between the ANC Youth League and the SACP provides more insight into the tensions within the ruling party.
These tensions are superficially between youth leader, Julius Malema and the SACP’s Blade Nzimande.
They are the volcanoes, evidence that beneath the surface, the tectonic plates are shifting. There is a fight to the death between nationalists who want to see the rapid transfer of wealth from white to black hands within the framework of a market economy and communists who want radical changes to economic policy and an end to the accumulation of wealth by what they see as a black “comprador” class.
The uneasy alliance between these two groupings who united to remove Thabo Mbeki from office and replace him with Jacob Zuma appears to have run its course.
But, as in a failing marriage, things have got a little complicated.
One of the outcomes of the fight against Mbeki was the accession to senior positions within the ANC of SACP leaders.
Most prominent of these was the SACP’s chairman, Gwede Mantashe, who was elected to the very powerful position of secretary general of the ANC.
In government, Zuma moved to reward Blade Nzimande, the SACP’s general secretary with the post of Minister of Higher Education.
Others similarly rewarded for their loyalty in the frontline of the Mbeki wars were Jeremy Cronin and Ibrahim Patel.
But Mbeki is now but a dim memory and the nationalists want Mantashe removed from office and Nzimande out of government.
Zuma, in the time honoured ANC tradition, told Radio 702’s Redi Direko yesterday morning that this was all just “lively debate”. He must wake up to the truth: his party is at war.

Related posts:

1. Malema walks out of SACP congress – what does it all mean?
2. Malema comes out with guns blazing
3. The smearing of Blade Nzimande
4. Cosatu’s Vavi rips into Blade Nzimande’s capitalist-style greed
5. Vavi, Nzimande, Macozoma, Mlambo-Ngcuka on the move