South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Solly Mapaila said on Thursday that South Africa is in the throes of a "reorganisation" of politics, which poses a danger in terms of the sustainability of the status quo.

Mapaila was addressing delegates at a three-day Indaba of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), in Johannesburg.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and former statistician general Dr Pali Lehohla.

Mapaila warned that there was a rupture taking place in South African politics.

He averred that there were forces, "similar to a reincarnation of the apartheid and Bantustan forces", coming together to remove the liberation movement.

“The liberation movement may be represented by the African National Congress (ANC) but it is bigger than the ANC. It has become the very system of our society that is contested,” he said.

He said the neoliberal policies upheld by the ANC had reached a point of crisis.

“The ANC, therefore, cannot be useful to sustain the implementation of the neoliberal project in South Africa without tempering the neoliberal economic policies. The neoliberal forces understand that because of the social pressure of our society, there is no way in which the ANC can continue to betray the masses and remain in power,” Mapaila added.

He told the gathering that as Indaba delegates work on solving the country’s crime challenges they must think about the fact that the liberation movement is being removed from political power.

He also shared the sentiments of Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu that the crime statistics that were shared were not real and not reflective of what people were feeling on the ground.

Mapaila suggested that there needed to be more coherence within the country’s Justice Cluster, including creating synergy with the police and the courts.

He said South Africa was an emerging Stateless capitalist society where criminals and corporates “do as they please” because they know that the State system is dysfunctional.

“We have a State system that is very good in hosting parties and ceremonies…” Mapaila said, clarifying that he was not referring to the Brics conference.

“Those are the things that we are able to do better but yet we can’t plan properly on how to solve crime, unemployment in our society,” he added.