Johannesburg – The “parasitic bourgeoisie” in the form of the Gupta family is the greatest threat facing the tripartite alliance and has contributed to its deterioration, the SACP said on Wednesday.

The Gupta family was a parasitic network which needed more urgent attention than monopoly capitalism as it posed the greatest threat to the national democratic revolution, SACP first deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila said at the party’s 14th congress. He was delivering a report on the state of the organisation.

“If we can’t deal with them we will not be able to deal with monopoly capital as a whole,” he said.

The SACP has repeatedly voiced its disapproval of the Gupta family, which has close ties to President Jacob Zuma. It allegedly influenced appointments to Cabinet and to the boards of state-owned enterprises in order to benefit its business interests.

Taking an example from biology, he provided an analogy in which the Gupta family was the parasite cymothoa exigua, or tongue-eating louse, and Zuma its host, a fish.

He explained that the parasite enters the fish through the gills, settles on its tongue and sucks its blood until the tongue atrophies and falls off. It then becomes the fish’s tongue and the two need one another to survive.

“The fight against the parasite is extremely important for the communist party.”

If they could not get hold of it, they would deal with the fish itself, he said.

He repeated the SACP’s call for Zuma to go. His protracted stay at the helm was exacerbating the movement’s problems.

Providing some insight into the friction within the tripartite alliance, he told delegates that the SACP and ANC had not had any meetings since the communists called for Zuma to be removed as president. Trade union federation Cosatu received the same treatment from the ANC when it made similar calls.

The congress ends on Saturday.

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