Bay Communist Party blasts 'disrespectful' branch

THE SA Communist Party's Nelson Mandela Bay district task team has blasted its KwaNobuhle branch, saying it was ill-disciplined and disrespectful for threatening to cause chaos if expelled ANC Ward 40 councillor Andile Gqabi was not reinstated.

In a strongly worded statement, district coordinator Sandile Adam said the task team not only distanced itself from the branch, but it did not recognise the KwaNobuhle sub-district as a legitimate structure. Last week, Ward 42 SACP sub-region organiser Xolisile Peter said the Communist Party still recognised Gqabi as its councillor and viewed his expulsion as a witch-hunt.

Peter said the SACP would organise mass action this week in a bid to get Gqabi reinstated as the ward councillor.

If service delivery issues were not addressed, Peter said, the violent protests that flared up in KwaLanga last year, in which councillors were assaulted, their properties torched and municipal property destroyed, would be "child's play" compared with what the party would do. - Rochelle de Kock