The saga around Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's alleged extramarital affair is nothing new considering the African National Congress (ANC) is approaching its elective conference, the South African Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal has said.

"That is nothing new. It dates back to the days of [President Thabo] Mbeki. These tactics featured strongly going into Polokwane, and now strongly as we go into the December conference," SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said on Thursday.

Mthembu made the comments on behalf of the SACP during his testimony at the Moerane Commission for political killings in KwaZulu-Natal which are being held in Mayville, Durban.

Mthembu said there was a high level of abuse of intelligence resources by the state that led to leaks similar to Ramaphosa's alleged sex tape.

He said the abuse of intelligence agencies contributed to Ramaphosa's so-called scandal and eventually would contribute to crippling SA.

“This abuse of state intelligence [is] one of the worst things that will collapse this beautiful country that developed against all odds.”

'Dirty work'

He claimed that the SACP was also subject to intelligence operations birthed by rival factions.

"We had been aware there was a project to do intelligence on James Nxumalo and myself. The surveillance would have given an advantage to a certain faction."

Mthembu said that corrupt intelligence authorities would feed false information to their superiors.

“They do this so there is an approval of a budget to do their dirty work.”

He said that during the peak of violence in Inchanga early in 2016, police had believed him to be the cause of unrest in the area.

“This is what has been fed in intelligence network structures. They said we planned to render KZN ungovernable, so, I must be the centre of intelligence operations. It was done deliberately so money can be released. They thought maybe they could see us assisting other factions.”

Not all police are bad

Mthembu said the police are not always to blame for abuse of state resources.

“The police is like an abused child. I believe that for many of them, it is not their intention to do dirty work. There is this peer pressure on them. The pressure is that they need to please powers that be.”

Mthembu said that he believed there were good police.

“It is definitely not all police. It cannot be. Many also try to help.”

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu established the commission in October 2016, chaired by advocate Marumo Moerane, to investigate the high number of political killings in the province since 2011.