The SACP would never be petty and threaten to contest elections just as a stunt to force the governing ANC into a more agreeable power-sharing arrangement, says the party’s central executive committee member Buti Manamela, also a member of the ANC national executive committee.
Speaking to Sunday World Engage, Manamela, also the deputy minister of higher education, said the SACP has repeatedly raised concerns around the configuration of the alliance and certain decisions, “including how consultation is made on the appointment of cabinet, austerity measures and so forth”.
What was important, he continued, “is that the SACP in its resolution strongly believes that the working-class voice in the state, which is a site of struggle, has gradually diminished and that the working-class voice has to be represented in those structures. It is within this context that the SACP believes that there is no political party that represents the working-class voice in a way in which the SACP can,” he said.
The SACP, a long-standing partner of the ANC within their three-way coalition alongside trade union federation Cosatu, 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.
This friction coincides with a broader regulatory reckoning.
In March, the Electoral Commission of South Africa moved to deregister 192 political parties, including the SACP, for non-compliance with legal obligations.
The parties lacked legislative representation, had abstained from municipal elections since registration, and failed to renew their official status by the January 2025 cut-off.
Despite the threat of deregistration, the SACP refused to concede, asserting its continued political relevance.
Manamela said that whether the SACP ultimately contested the elections and whether there would be an alliance or not, or issues in the alliance even after that contestation of elections, “we need to underline what the party says are the reasons for contesting elections”.
The ANC appreciates that discussion must happen, he added.
“From here onwards, whatever happens, primary to the interests of the people in our country, is that we have to resolve the national question. We cannot have people at each other’s throats based on their race, nationality, tribe or ethnicity, as well as the gender question.”
“We also have to resolve the question of our economy and the ultimate political liberation of those who were historically oppressed. If any of these things that are happening do not speak to that, we need to go back and ask why.”
Manamela said the SACP’s overall historical mission has been that of socialism, punting the ideology as a solution to the socio-economic questions facing South Africa.
Asked whether it was not a contradiction for leaders like him to serve in the government executive under President Cyril Ramaphosa, while holding strong views that the governing party was abandoning workers’ interests, he said he had been a card-carrying member of the ANC for a long time and he had not volunteered to serve in government.
“I was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, and I continue at his pleasure in government.”
