Solly Mapaila, the general secretary of the SACP, has announced that the party will run in the next municipal elections.
Mapaila clarified that this was an effort to fortify their alliance with the ANC rather than a sign that they were disbanding it.
He was speaking on Monday in Soweto at the 30th annual commemorative ceremony for former SACP general secretary Joe Slovo.
Slovo was a prominent anti-apartheid activist and a leader of the SACP. He was appointed minister of housing following the 1994 general elections.
Monday marked 30 years since Slovo’s passing as a result of cancer on January 6, 1995. His death occurred during a critical period of the country’s transition to democracy.
In protest of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attempt to bring together all of the political parties that made it to parliament, SACP members sang during the event on Monday that the government of national unity (GNU) ought to be disbanded.
We are not the enemy of the ANC
Mapaila stated that the SACP’s desire to see the working class represented is the reason the party has chosen to run in the local elections in 2026.
“We are not the enemy of the ANC, and the dual membership continues because the political landscape dictates that we confront capital and advance the NDR [national democratic revolution] as the SACP,” said Mapaila.
Mapaila praised Ramaphosa for his approval of the National Health Insurance and the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, highlighting the SACP’s commitment to closely monitor the latter.
He said that in order for the nation to use its resources to create jobs, the government should also start a conversation about the national debt.
“In order to strengthen the alliance, we cannot be outside when the situation gets worse. So we are entering the space,” he said.
“We are not enemies of the African National Congress. We only have one member who’s not a member of the ANC.”
The ANC should be open to hearing from those who think the GNU was a mistake, according to Ramaphosa.
The ANC and SACP are like twins
“The SACP has been a strength behind the ANC; similarly, the ANC has been a pillar of strength to the SACP, and the two need each other,” Ramaphosa said.
“The two are like twins; separating them is to weaken our NDR. Getting one to walk separately is to weaken the national democratic movement.
“We therefore need to strengthen our resolve to prosecute the NDR to finality, knowing very well that the SACP’s mission is to build socialism in South Africa.”
He claimed that since the 1950s, splinters have undermined the ANC, and the most recent elections demonstrated how severely these splinters have damaged the party.
He said: “We need to ask ourselves whether we are truly serious about winning state power on our own as the alliance, because if we are, then we walk together.
“If we walk separately, then we must accept that state power is going to be diffused and no longer going to reside in the hands of the mass democratic movement or the alliance.
“That is the choice we have to make, and that is the message that I want to put forward.”
