The ANC is so far failing to convince its alliance partner, the SACP, to reverse its decision to contest elections as an independent party. SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila on Tuesday announced, in front of ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, that his party has selected March as the date of its local government elections manifesto conference. “Sometime in March we will convene ourselves at the people’s manifesto conference wherein communities will come together, trade unions, informal traders, youth, women, faith-based activists, progressive professionals and formations of the working class to determine their own manifesto,” Mapaila said to applause from SACP members.
Mapaila’s announcement of a manifesto launch indicates that the ANC has failed to convince him not to pull the SACP into contesting elections outside the tripartite alliance. The ANC has previously spoken of the negative impact that the SACP going alone would have on the alliance. At its national general council (NGC) last month which Mapaila did not attend, the ANC resolved that SACP deployed representatives would not be allowed to attend its elections strategy meetings as they are now seen as political opponents.
This will not be another bureaucratic exercise; we are entering the battles of governments at the local government level in the interest of the working class. In other words, we are coming to determine a new social path for municipalities The ANC’s highest decision-making body between conferences, the national executive committee (NEC) has also resolved to reject the dual membership being held by SACP members. The SACP is an integral part of the tripartite alliance which includes the ANC and Cosatu and has always campaigned under the banner of the ANC.
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However, it is opposed to the formation of the government of national unity (GNU) which includes the DA and leaves out the EFF and MK Party. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told the NGC during his mid-term report that the party’s NEC had essentially given the SACP an ultimatum to either backtrack on its decision to contest elections on its own or have its members lose their ANC membership. But Mapaila is unfazed, telling attendees at the 31st Joe Slovo memorial lecture in Johannesburg on Tuesday that the decision to contest elections would not be reversed.
“The SACP is entering the local government elections in 2026 which will be a crucial terrain of class struggle. In other words, we are coming to determine a new social path for municipalities,” said Mapaila.
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