SACP removes Gwede Mantashe from its central committee after he missed meetings

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Communist Party (SACP) said it removed Gwede Mantashe from its central committee after he missed a number of its meetings.

The central committee is the SACP’s highest decision making body between conferences.

Mantashe was a member of the committee, along with his role as the African National Congress’ (ANC) national chairperson.

At a media briefing in Johannesburg on Sunday, the SACP’s first Deputy General Secretary, Madala Masuku, said the party understands Mantashe needed to focus on his ANC duties.

“The reason why he is out of the committee is because there is a constitutional clause that says members of the central committee cannot absent themselves more than three consecutive meetings, so he continued to do that and when we did communicate to him verbally, he did say the situation he was in and we understood it as well.”

SACP said there is no bad blood between it and Mantashe after unceremoniously removing him from its central committee.

This comes amid heightened tensions over the SACP’s decision to contest elections alone, putting the party on a collision course with its alliance partner, the ANC.

Explained Masuku: “One thing that led to that (his removal), the key one was the fact that he wasn’t sending apologies. Even after being persuaded. The central committee was left with no option but to say we do understand he has the challenges that he is having, but one of the basic things of members of the Communist Party are taught is to respect collectives where they are.”