SACP to attend ANC’s birthday celebrations as parties prepare to clash at polls

Despite growing tensions with the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) says it will participate in the party’s birthday celebrations in Rustenburg next month.

The ANC is heading to the North West to celebrate its 114th anniversary, challenged by a decline in support and what appears to be a fractured relationship with its historic allies in the tripartite alliance.

At the ANC’s National General Council this month, the ANC’s top leaders launched soft blows against the SACP because of the socialists’ decision to contest the upcoming local government elections independently.

First, the ANC’s chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, who holds dual membership in both the ANC and the SACP, told the media that he will not vote for the SACP when the time comes.

Then the president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, told delegates at the party’s National General Council (NGC) that ANC members who are also SACP members must excuse themselves from the ANC’s elections strategy meetings until both parties can resolve their differences.

Despite these developments, SACP spokesperson Mbulelo Mandlana said his party will be part of the festivities at the Moruleng stadium in January.

“The SACP is committed to participating in the alliance activities and working to improve alliance coordination and alliance relations.

“To that end, the SACP will be represented in the January 8 rally,” he said.

Dual membership problems

However, Mandlana said the SACP will continue to engage the ANC on its decision to exclude its members from strategic meetings.

“For us as the SACP, there is still a need to differentiate between the words in the speech of the president and the overall outcome of the NGC of the ANC, because as far as we are concerned, there are some differences between the two, and it is necessary that our ongoing dialogue should continue to clarify those overlaps.

“For example, the president in his speech refers to the non-participation of members of the SACP, implying every individual who has dual membership.

“However, our understanding is that this relates to official organisational representation as previously practised. The president’s interpretation has the implication to outlaw SACP membership among ANC members, which is certainly incorrect.

“Among other details, our engagements should iron this matter out,” he said.

Mandlana said the matter has been given to the joint task team that is dealing with the challenges between the SACP and the ANC.

Mayoral candidates

Meanwhile, Mandlana said the SACP is not ready to announce its mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg.

This is a hotly contested city, and political parties are expected to make their best offering to the residents of Joburg in these elections.

The DA had already announced the candidacy of Helen Zille for the mayoral position; the PA has announced Kenny Kunene, and there were talks of Herman Mashaba possibly throwing his name in the ring. The ANC said it will only reveal its candidate at a much later stage.

“The SACP elections preparation work is underway and is progressing smoothly. The SACP will make an announcement when the candidate has been selected for Johannesburg as well as other cities and regions,” he said.

Poor relationship between ANC and SACP

Andre Duvenhage, a political analyst at North-West University, says the SACP has raised several concerns about the ANC. He said these problems have led to the current poor relations between the two parties.

“Over the past two or three years, we have seen the beginning of the disintegration of the tripartite alliance, specifically the relationship between the ANC and the SACP.

“The leadership of the SACP has huge concerns about what is going on in the ANC; this has to do with state capture, this has to do with corruption it has to do with a number of things to the extent that the SACP on a number of occasions said they are going to go their separate ways when it comes to the local government elections,” he said.

Duvenhage said the SACP could have some problems raising capital for its election campaign. He said the party has always been seen as the brains of the alliance, the vanguard of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

“My assessment is that the SACP will compete against the ANC… looking at the ANC support base, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, they are continuing to lose support; it is clear that they are in trouble.

“On the other hand, the SACP will have to develop a strategy on how they will get finances for their full election campaign. This is a campaign that will involve 247 municipalities around the country. That is more than 13 000 voting stations; that is going to be very tough,” he said.

NOW READ: Ramaphosa says ANCYL is ready to lead – but it can’t even organise its own elective conference