Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Tuesday said corruption and State capture were two of the most serious stumbling blocks to achieving radical economic transformation in South Africa.

Makhura was speaking at the South African Communist Party's (SACP's) 14th National Congress where delegates will nominate new leadership for the next five-year term, and also decide whether to contest elections for the first time as a stand-alone party, and not as part of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) alliance.

“The SACP has been outspoken against corporate State capture and these matters of corruption. The party has given the necessary leadership in mobilising various social forces and citizens in defence of the integrity of our national developmental state and the constitution which upon our new Republic is founded.”

“There is no way we as progressive people belonging to a congress movement can allow a concentration and monopolisation of our country’s national resources to be controlled by a few, whether those few are black or white,” he said.

Makhura told delegates that the ruling party acknowledged during it’s ANC national policy conference last week that they were losing moral authority as a result of being tolerant to crooks in its ranks

“The movement must be prepared to endure insults, intimidation as well as all kinds of threats because those who want corruption to rise and state capture to thrive are going to fight back, fight back hard. We must be prepared to endure and fight until there is a movement of liberation in our country.”

The week-long SACP National Congress will discuss state capture and the fragile state of the ANC-led tripartite alliance and how it can be reconfigured.

The SACP, together with the other ANC alliance partner, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have banned president Jacob Zuma from attending their meetings.