South African Communist Party leader Blade Nzimande has lashed out at the African National Congress and their relationship with the Gupta family.
In a short interview with HuffPost SA at the ANC policy conference on Tuesday, Nzimande questioned the dynamics of the tripartite alliance.
"We don't know if we are in an alliance with the ANC or with the Guptas or whether we are in an alliance with a faction," Nzimande said.
The SACP general secretary said these are some of the matters which will be discussed in order to "move forward" in "rebuilding our alliance".
"I hope that the first two days of the conference would come out with something concrete in terms of helping the ANC deal with the challenges as identified in the report presented by [secretary general Gwede Mantashe] because that will go a long way in rebuilding the alliance. If the ANC is ailing, we are all in trouble," Nzimande said.
Mantashe presented a diagnostic organizational report on Friday last week which highlighted some of the perceived problems within the ANC.
Nzimande questioned whether the first two days of the policy conference, which was set aside for a consultative process with various role players, was effective.
"Whether those first two days or helped or not, I am not in a position to assess. We can all assess when the conference ends. We are committed to the alliance there is no question about it," he said.
"The issue is that its [the alliance's] mode of functioning is outdated right now. We need new ways of the alliance functioning going forward."