South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande made time to drop by the Star offices during a hectic few days in Britain last month.

Nzimande is South Africa's Minister for Higher Education and Training and was in London to attend the Education World Forum, a global conference held annually to discuss educational practice around the world.

But he made no secret of the fact that he was glad to get away from the assembled ministers for a few hours' discussion with comrades in the hidden corner of the metropolis that houses the daily paper of the left.

All eyes were on South Africa at the end of last year when anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela passed away. Briefly the world seemed to unite to pay tribute to the legendary freedom fighter.

But Nzimande notes that the portrayal of Mandela in the Western media was drained of any serious political content.

"Even though Madiba told us directly: 'I am not an angel, not a saint, I am part of a collective,' the West painted him as just a generous individual. The African National Congress (ANC) was almost painted out of the story.

"The historical context of apartheid and the revolutionary nature of the struggle against it did not feature. As if Mandela stood alone. As if he was not a member, a cadre, a soldier," Nzimande says angrily.

He has no doubts as to why. "They have to destroy the prestige of the liberation movement, and they have to separate Mandela from his comrades and successors in order to attack South Africa."

This media campaign to denigrate his country takes many forms.

"They present South Africa as if it is falling apart," he says. "But over the last five years alone we have seen enormous gains for ordinary South Africans.

"Life expectancy has risen by four years, now averaging at 61. We've completely turned around the Aids denialism that was such a problem only recently," he argues.

"Improvements in education have been very impressive. Last year 78.2 per cent of school-leavers passed their final exams. It was less than 60 per cent in 1994.

"Sixty per cent of university students are now black or women. The government is also investing in a new health insurance scheme that will ensure everyone in the country gets coverage, and we've cleaned up the water supply, so over 80 per cent now have clean drinking water.

"We're investing in our children. Of 12 million schoolchildren in South Africa, nine million receive a free school meal each day.

"The country is absolutely loyal to the ideals of the anti-apartheid movement."

But if such progress is being made, what does Nzimande make of the recent decision of metalworkers' union Numsa not to campaign for the ANC in the next election or fund the party?

Isn't this a sign that the tripartite alliance of the ANC, SACP and trade union federation Cosatu is in trouble?

"Well, Numsa has always had an ultra-left wing that opposed the alliance. Those people now saying we have betrayed the Freedom Charter" - the statement of core principles that binds the tripartite alliance - "are people who previously refused to sign up to the charter.

"Numsa's official position has changed because its general secretary now supports that trend. It's unfortunate because it may provoke a split. Many steelworkers will not abandon the ANC. In fact the SACP has thousands of members in Numsa."

But don't recent comments by President Jacob Zuma that the trade unions cannot expect to co-govern with the ANC - which would mean adopting "another economic system" - also undermine the alliance? Are they an acknowledgement that South Africa is on a capitalist, not socialist, trajectory?

Nzimande doesn't think so. "Zuma was merely talking about the nature of the alliance, which has always been a strategic alliance for a national democratic revolution.

"It's a shared programme which goes forward under ANC leadership. But that doesn't mean the unions and the SACP do not have a voice.

"Actually we have never had such a platform for contributing to policy, not since 1994. Not even under Mandela was the left as influential in South Africa as it is now.

"That's why the SACP is optimistic that an ever-more radical economic transformation is possible."

So what does he think of demands from groups such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), founded last year by disgraced former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, that key sectors of the economy such as the mines be nationalised?

"The SACP believes in the socialisation of the means of production," Nzimande says. "We're not on the brink of a breakthrough to socialism, but we are calling for more radical land reform and an economic transition so the country is less dependent on mineral extraction and develops its productive forces."

However, he has no time for the EFF, which he describes as a "neofascist" movement - noting its militaristic structure with a "central command team" in charge and Malema's title of "commander-in-chief."

The EFF's anti-capitalist image is belied by Malema's own background as a "tenderpreneur."

"When it talks about nationalisation, you have to ask the question: 'Nationalisation for whom?'" Nzimande says.

"We have seen examples of nationalisation for capitalists, indeed we saw it under apartheid. The EFF's programme is a bid to steal public resources in order to bail out a rather small section of the black bourgeoisie.

"You have to understand that splits in the labour movement due to 'vigilante' unions help capital, not us. Monopoly capital is smelling blood in South Africa. We have to be vigilant."

Much of that monopoly capital is not owned in South Africa, of course, but abroad, particularly in Britain. This is why Nzimande sees the role of the Brics nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - as key to creating a progressive counterweight to US-led imperialism.

"The Brics nations have the potential to offer the world an alternative development trajectory, a non-neoliberal way forward," he says.

"They have the potential to create a balance between the power of developed and developing nations. But to do that we cannot rely on the governments of these countries, which are not in all cases progressive.

"We have to mobilise the progressive forces in each of these countries to create a Brics we want to be part of. It's significant that each of the Brics nations has a powerful communist movement."

In Britain of course we are not part of the Brics. What can we do?

"Tell the real South African story. Confront the media's narrative to improve understanding," he says.

"But above all, confront monopoly capital. Your capitalists affect us too. And a neoliberal Britain is no friend to South Africa.

"Your own struggle helps us as ours helps you. It's the same struggle, after all."