The complete absence of left-wing leaders in President Kgalema Motlanthe’s Cabinet has heightened fears among ANC president Jacob Zuma’s left-wing supporters that they are being marginalised.
Delegates to the South African Communist Party’s policy conference last week challenged the leadership on the absence of communists in President Kgalema Motlanthe’s inaugural Cabinet.
Delegates who attended the conference quizzed their leadership on why Motlanthe “ignored the communists”.
In addition the economic summit of the tripartite alliance, scheduled for this weekend, has been cancelled which the left believes is as an important vehicle for influencing government policy.
Instead, a meeting of the alliance leaders will be held at which the appointment of the deputy ministers in vacant portfolios -- finance, foreign affairs and correctional services -- will be discussed.
At the SACP’s policy conference delegates complained that the party was not consulted about the appointment of the new Cabinet members, after one communist leader conceded that the appointments took place “without a great deal of consultation”.
Delegates said long-serving communists in government and the National Assembly, such as Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Rob Davies and parliamentary transport committee chairperson Jeremy Cronin, could have been considered for Cabinet jobs.
Parliamentary justice committee chairperson Yunus Carrim was seen as a possible candidate for the post of justice minister vacated by Brigitte Mabandla.
Mabandla was shifted to the public enterprises ministry, which the communists want to scrap.
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