Charles Nqakula

Six members of the SACP's 25-strong Central Committee are in cabinet: Chairperson Charles Nqakula; his deputy Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi; Jeff Radebe; Essop Pahad (Minister in the Office of the President and Mbeki's personal enforcer); Sydney Mufamadi; and Ronnie Kasrils...

But his close friend Charles Nqakula who chairs the SACP and is his parliamentary counsellor ensures that his programme gets through...

Key critics of Mbeki's strategy are Blade Nzimande an academic who recently defeated Mbeki loyalist Charles Nqakula in the contest for the general secretaryship of the SACP; Jeremy Cronin SACP Deputy General Secretary (a former political prisoner academic and poet) and Zwelinzima Vavi Deputy General Secretary of Cosatu...

Manto Tshabalala; Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula wife of SACP General Secretary Charles Nqakula; and veteran activist Ebrahim Ishmael Ebrahim...

The others are Cosatu General Secretary Sam Shilowa sometimes criticised for being too close to Thabo Mbeki and the SACP's General Secretary Charles Nqakula seen as ultimately moderate...

Under General Secretary Charles Nqakula the party has lost much of its bite...