SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande speaking at the 24th commemoration of the death of late struggle icon Joe Slovo at the Avalon cemetery in Soweto, Johannesburg: Photo: Itumeleng English/African News Agency (ANA)
The South Africa Communist Party’s second deputy general secretary, Chris Matlhako, is optimistic about the achievement of a reconfigured Tripartite Alliance that would see the alliance’s components becoming equal partners and making decisions as equals.
But political analyst Zamikhaya Maseti doubted that a reconfigured alliance would be achieved.
“The question that the SACP must ask is what will it take to achieve this reconfiguration?” said Maseti.
Presently, the ANC is the major partner and leader of the political partnership, but the SACP and Cosatu had for years been demanding that they be treated as equal partners. Often the ANC would make decisions, particularly on governance policy, without consulting the junior partners.
Matlhako said in an interview with The Citizen on the sidelines of the SACP special congress currently held in Ekurhuleni east of Johannesburg, that the alliance partners – ANC, SACP, and Cosatu – have an understanding about the need for the reconfigured alliance.
“There were no major differences – just immaterial differences of nuances. We all feel there is a need for the reconfiguration of this alliance. We agree that the SACP must be related differently to the ruling ANC, and Cosatu likewise,” Matlhako said.
“How do we together advance the interests of the working class and what sacrifices we all make in order to ensure we achieve economic growth, we fight unemployment, inequality and including social insecurity.”
He said ANC had rebutted some areas of the SACP 2017 congress resolution pertaining to the alliance reconfiguration. The SACP responded to the ANC critique “via the joint Alliance Political Council”.
The SACP would report to its 750 delegates at the special congress for the party structure to ratify the decision. The party would then get a fresh mandate on how to deal with the reconfiguration hot potato and the party’s final position.
“We are satisfied that we have areas of convergence with the ANC on this matter. This process has climaxed into an important stage of holding the alliance together,” Matlhako said.
“This is particularly important as we approach the upcoming local government election, we must prepare our forces for a clear focus to make an impact on the poor and working people of our country.”
The next Alliance Political Council was expected to explore commonalities before a final position of the alliance was made.
The midterm congress is meant to evaluate 2017 SACP congress resolutions and a leadership report back on the progress made in achieving the resolutions.
Maseti said the SACP failed to implement the resolution on the contesting of state power by the party.
“We saw it contesting power under the ANC in the 2019 election despite the 2017 decision to contest separately from the ANC,” he said.
“It will be interesting how the delegates at this special congress will deal with this question or the resolution that the SACP did not implement.
“The Tripartite Alliance has not yet been reconfigured many years after a decision was made that it should be. Will the SACP get what they want? I doubt [it].”
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