ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula (left) and SACP General General Solly Mapaila hand over a token of appreciation to the President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel during his visit to Freedom Park, Pretoria on August 23, 2023. It is not the first time that the SACP has threatened to pull out of the Tripartite Alliance and contest elections independently, says the writer. Picture: Oupa Mokoena / African News Agency (ANA)
Bheki Mngomezulu
THIS past weekend the South African Communist Party (SACP) announced that it has taken a decision to contest the upcoming 2026 Local Government Election (LGE) as an independent political party instead of participating under the ANC ticket as part of the Tripartite Alliance.
The decision which was discussed at the three-day Central Committee plenary of the SACP was subsequently conveyed to the ANC leadership when the two parties held their bilateral meeting on November 24, 2024.
According to Solly Mapaila, the Secretary General of the SACP, further details about the implementation of this decision will be ironed out by the 5th Special National Congress, the Political Bureau and the Central Committee set to convene on this matter in a few days’ time.
Intriguingly, the SACP claims that such a decision is not new but was already taken in 2023. However, when the party realised that “imperialist forces” were determined to reduce the ANC and to bring it down as much as possible for political expediency, the SACP decided to put its decision on hold and to support the ANC in the 2024 general election.
This decision does not seem to have produced positive results since the ANC was reduced to 40.18 per cent of the national vote compared to the 57.50 per cent it obtained in the 2019 general election.
Mapaila reminded the media that it will not be the first time that the SACP contests LGE as an independent political party. He recalled that the SACP fielded candidates in Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the Free State province.
While these statements are factually correct and verifiable, a few issues are worth interrogating.
Firstly, it is not the first time that the SACP has threatened to pull out of the Tripartite Alliance and contest elections independently. Way back in 2017, they made the same threat. Even in other recent elections, they have done the same. However, closer to the election date they rescinded their decision.
If this is the case, what will be different this time? Will the SACP focus on the Free State as it did before, or will it contest the 2026 LGE nationally as an independent political party?
Secondly, the SACP is not happy about its continued membership of the Tripartite Alliance. Why does it not take a firm decision and pull out? Is it concerned about the weakening of the Alliance or is it mainly concerned about the fact that it does not have enough numbers to make any significant impact outside of the ANC?
Thirdly, the SACP did not embrace the ANC’s decision to join hands with the Democratic Alliance (DA) after the May 29, 2024, general election. It labelled such a decision as being ‘counter-revolutionary’ and setting black people backwards.
Initially, there were talks about a possible Grand Alliance between the ANC and the DA. This was met with resentment from Tripartite Alliance partners. Later, the ANC invited other political parties to form a ten-member multiparty coalition government which they wrongly labelled the Government of National Unity (GNU).
To date, the SACP remains opposed to the idea of including the DA in the multiparty coalition due to ideological differences. While admitting that the ANC did not obtain enough votes to govern the country alone, it believes that the ANC would have been able to constitute government without the DA since there are other ‘progressive’ political parties which would have assisted in this regard.
Fourthly, both the SACP as a political party and Solly Mapaila as an individual have been critical of Former President Jacob Zuma who is now the leader of uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP). The party has maintained the same position against Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Is there any possibility of the SACP ditching the ANC and working with the MKP and the EFF if it realises that it does not have numbers?
Fifthly, the SACP and the ANC have been working with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Following this decision, will the SACP push for the formation of a new labour federation, or will it consider working closely with an existing workers’ federation?
For example, is there any possibility of the SACP working with Zwelinzima Vavi’s South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) which was established in 2017 and boasts 21 affiliated unions with around 800 000 members?
The significant decline of the ANC’s support as evidenced in the May 2024 general election has set the country on a new pedestal. The ANC was embarrassed by the results – although signs were already there before the election on what the party needed to rectify.
Moreover, the ANC was inadvertently set in a frantic mode which saw it making unpopular decisions with other Tripartite Alliance partners.
While it is true that the SACP has been mulling the idea of leaving the Tripartite Alliance the issue of numbers has been its deterrent. However, the ANC’s handling of coalition talks reignited the SACP’s resolve to pull out of the Alliance.
However, the fact that the SACP is still prepared to sit down with the ANC in January 2025 to see if the two parties cannot find each other creates an opportunity for them to reach an agreement as they have done before.
Surely, deliberations between and among political formations are commended. In that sense, what the SACP and the ANC are doing is right. However, the SACP should make up its mind once and for all. If it wants to leave the Alliance for whatever reason(s), it must do so. If it has not yet decided, it must keep quiet.
Making threats that the Party will contest the election alone on the eve of each election will tarnish the SACP’s political image. Public spats between the leadership of both the ANC and the SACP will not assist either of them. The sooner the SACP takes a firm decision the better for both parties.
* PROF BHEKI MNGOMEZULU is the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy at the Nelson Mandela University.
** The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The African.