A crucial bilateral meeting between the ANC and the SACP on Monday is expected to be dominated by the political firestorm surrounding the communists’ decision to contest the 2026 local elections independently, a move that threatens to shatter the decades-old tripartite alliance.
The engagement, described officially as a routine meeting, comes amid escalating internal warfare within the SACP and public condemnation from the ANC’s top leadership.
Future reconfiguration of alliance
Speculation from ANC insiders suggests the SACP’s electoral ambitions will top the agenda. This alongside the fraught debate on the future reconfiguration of the alliance itself.
SACP spokesperson Mbulelo Mandlana framed the meeting as part of normal relations.
“This is the normal bilateral meeting between the two organisations. On the agenda is our common programme. The state of the alliance and policy matters that are relevant in the immediate context. The work of the ANC and SACP working group on election coordination, and the way forward. That’s essentially the agenda of the meeting,” Mandlana said.
However, this placid official line belies the severe tensions that have erupted since the SACP’s landmark resolution to go it alone at the polls. The decision has triggered a bitter internal SACP conflict. One that is pitting its top leaders against each other, and drawing a furious response from the ANC.
Mbalula slammed the move
In September, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula launched a scathing attack. He called the SACP’s plan a “monumental disaster” and a threat to the unity of the liberation movement.
“We have reflected at the theoretical level on the implications of this disastrous decision,” Mbalula said.
“It is clear to us that there is no ideological basis for the Communist Party to contest elections independently,” he argued. He warned it would fracture the historic alliance, a bedrock of South Africa’s democratic revolution.
The internal SACP crisis has now burst into the open. This follows a call from the party’s national chairperson, Blade Nzimande, for an emergency congress to halt the planned independent election run. Nzimande, a government minister, warned the move risks shattering the governing tripartite alliance and isolating the communists from power.
His intervention, however, has triggered a ferocious backlash from within the party’s ranks. In a fiery rebuttal, former union leader and SACP member in Gauteng, Phiri Matsemela, branded Nzimande’s proposal as a “hypocritical and destructive act”.
Party’s personal and ideological rifts
Matsemela accused Nzimande of feeding his successor, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila, to “the worst enemies of the revolution”. Thus exposing the deep personal and ideological rifts tearing at the party.
Nzimande’s own analysis presents a stark assessment of the SACP’s organisational readiness. He is citing “structural weaknesses”, “limited visibility”, and “fragile organisational capacity” as fundamental constraints. His document argues the party’s resolution to contest independently was based on a flawed analysis. And it has created confusion within its ranks, particularly over the principle of dual membership with the ANC.
The confrontation exposes an existential crisis for the SACP. As it attempts to navigate a political landscape where its partner, the ANC, is visibly faltering. The communists’ dilemma— whether to remain inside a weakening alliance or risk a solo venture with no guarantee of success — mirrors that of left-wing parties globally. Those that have long governed in coalition with broader movements.
As the two organisations meet at Luthuli House, the question hanging over the meeting is not just about managing an alliance partner. It is about containing a political schism that threatens to redefine South Africa’s left for a generation.
