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The DA can reveal that the South African Communist Party is raising party funds by selling access to Cabinet Ministers.

The SACP’s internal organisational report from 2009 states that it sold access to Ministers to various “institutions and individuals” at a gala dinner on the evening of its national congress.

Paragraph 1.1.5 of the document states:

The Dinner was a resounding success despite the fact that most of the work had to be done in a short space of time and the fact that most Ministers responded late on our request for them to host tables which were sold to various institutions and individuals.

It is clear from this document that part of the SACP’s fundraising strategy is to sell access to Ministers. Donors who pay for this privilege will presumably want a return on their investment that goes beyond simply having a meal with Blade Nzimande or Jeremy Cronin.

Besides being a spectacular breach of ethics, the prospect of communists giving wealthy people preferential access to government is deeply ironic.

Marxists have said for years that the state is a committee for managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie. The SACP now appears to be actively ensuring that this is so.

If the SACP was true to its values, it would be helping the poor and unemployed to be heard in government, not those who are rich enough to secure a seat next a Cabinet Minister at a gala dinner.

The SACP abandoned its principles a long time ago in favour of guaranteed Cabinet positions and all the perks that go with that. Selling access to Cabinet Ministers just confirms that the SACP has well and truly sold out.