‘She gives democratic centralism a bad name’

Former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa has weighed in on ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte’s opinion piece in the Daily Maverick, saying she “gives democratic centralism a bad name”.

In her piece, Duarte slammed the state capture inquiry and said democratic centralism was now the subject of a commission led by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, who practises his craft “based on the narrow parameters of existing laws”. 

Duarte said she hoped that the inquiry doesn’t turn SA’s democracy “into more of a neoliberal concoction”, where everyone “sounds the same and does nothing real to transform our society”. 

She called the testimonies provided at the inquiry, against the ANC, an “onslaught against the people”, saying they display “a serious lack of appreciation therefore of the role party caucuses play within a democracy such as ours”.