During the 5th National General Council (NGC) of the ANC, an altercation with its alliance partner, the SACP, ensued. There is a demand that SACP members give up their ANC membership in the event the party maintains its decision to contest elections independently next year. In a long, complex and often contradictory history of the liberation movement, this is a critical moment for the alliance.
I argue that this ultimatum is not a mere bureaucratic directive, but a political ploy that may reveal the locus of dual members’ allegiance. In this case, whether it lies with the ANC as the (broad church) of the democratic movement, or with the SACP the custodian of Marxist-Leninist principles and working-class revolution. Historically, the ANC-SACP relationship has been seen as a partnership formed through struggle, sacrifice and shared ideals.
Since the 1920s, when early communist activists joined African political movements, this relationship developed into a strategic alliance that peaked during the armed struggle. Communists played significant roles in logistics and organisation within uMkhonto we Sizwe and the exiled ANC. The combination of people, ideas and strategies during exile created leaders who held joint membership not just as a political convenience but as a sign of unity towards a common goal, the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).
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However, the political landscape evolved since 1994, which marked the democratic breakthrough in a long history of struggle against apartheid. As such, the concept of dual membership may have become less about solidarity in ideology, but centred more around access to state power, opportunities and political insulation in a dominant-party system (led by the ANC). In this context, the ultimatum is poised independently to challenge the true allegiance of members.
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