While the SACP is adamant that it is all systems go as it forges ahead with plans to contest the 2026 local government elections outside its longtime alliance partner, the ANC, the majority party feels it would be a sad day as there would never be a strong ANC without the SACP.
The ANC feels the move by the SACP would be an unnecessary division that would cost it dearly in the 2026 municipal elections.
The issue of the SACP taking its own route in the elections was the elephant in the room when the tripartite alliance partners gathered at Mdantsane’s Sisa Dukashe Stadium on Thursday for the International Workers Day event organised by their other ally, Cosatu.
Speaker after speaker touched on the matter, with those from the ANC saying they did not support the move by the SACP.
Speakers from its alliance partners, however, said such a move would be vital for the advancement of the working class struggle.
Addressing the event, SACP national deputy chair Thulas Nxesi said contesting state power in 2026 would not be for narrow reasons.
“This is a direct response to the crisis of working-class representation.
“For years, decisions about the economy and society have been taken without consultation with the working class.
“We are saying this must end. We are not seeking to elevate individuals into the political elite,” he said.
The SACP, Nxesi said, was “seeking to advance a programme of democratic power rooted in the interests of the workers and poor, to win the battle of democracy as a single class”.
He called on Cosatu and all its affiliates, and on all other progressive worker organisations, “to unite with us in this historic mission”.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Nxesi, who is the former minister of employment and labour, said the party remained steadfast in its commitment to building working-class power and pursuing socialist transformation in SA.
“Our decision to contest is informed by our strategic objective of deepening democracy and shifting the balance of forces in favour of the working class.”
He said there was no political party that represented the working-class voice in a way in which the SACP could.
The SACP has historically avoided contesting elections independently.
Instead, its members have typically stood for office under the ANC’s banner.
However, the cracks in this decades-old alliance have widened recently, with the SACP openly challenging the ANC’s economic strategies, governance decisions and perceived leniency in addressing corruption.
SACP leader Solly Mapaila had said the party’s decision to contest independently was because they felt neglected by the ANC.
Nxesi said though the party had decided to go it alone at the polls, the decision did not signify an outright break from the alliance, but rather a necessary step in advancing working-class interests.
“The alliance remains an important terrain of struggle, but the SACP must also strengthen its organisational independence and assert itself as a political force in its own right,” he said.
However, ANC provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane told the Dispatch the move by the SACP “will create unnecessary divisions, if done recklessly”.
“If it is emotionally and recklessly done, we feel bad about it. But if it is done to help us advance the national democratic revolution, we are fine with it.
“If it is done because there are a lot of emotions involved, a lot of blackmailing, finger pointing and blaming each other, it won’t help us.
“But I can tell you now, there won’t be a strong ANC without the SACP, and equally, there won’t be a strong SACP without the ANC.
“It’s an unnecessary division that is going to cost our votes as we are streaming ahead with the transformation of our country,” Mabuyane said.
He said the move would basically “retard the progress we are making in terms of changing this country, in terms of transformation”.
Mabuyane said while there were ongoing engagements between the two parties, the contention was not over ideological differences, especially in the province.
“In our case in the Eastern Cape, you cannot even come and bring an ideological debate over this. There are no capitalists in the province, no-one has means. We are all have-nots here.
“So here, when you talk ideology, you talk of one people,
whether your are a communist or a nationalist."
However, the move has sparked mixed reactions in the political sphere, with analysts viewing it as a natural evolution of the SACP’s role, given its long-standing ideological differences with the ANC.
ANC NEC member Senzo Mchunu said his party respected the SACP’s decision, but warned that “none of us can exist without the other”.
He said engagements between the parties would continue in a bid to find an amicable solution.
Cosatu national executive committee member Zola Sapeta, who delivered a keynote address, said the strength of their alliance “must be seen on the ground and not in boardrooms”.
While Sapeta said talks were ongoing within Cosatu on who to side with, he said it was important that negotiations over this were fully exhausted.
He, however, said the SACP, as a vanguard of the working class, “is a natural choice of workers”.
Daily Dispatch
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