POLITRICKING | ANC has ignored its traditional allies for convenience of office - SACP's Mapaila

The South African Communist Party (SACP) has accused its alliance partner, the African National Congress (ANC) of ignoring its traditional allies for the convenience of office.

This as it describes relations between organisations in the former liberation movement as being at an all-time low, with concerns that a decision to contest elections outside of the ANC might lead to even deeper fractures among the partners.

The communist party is holding its 5th special national congress this week, where party members are expected to finalise modalities towards contesting the 2026 local government elections. It has argued that this is a way to assert its independence, whilst admitting that it's also a protest against the current status quo in the alliance.

“This was a last resort option because of its impact to divide the movement, but it's an option that is necessary that needs to be taken, in order to further unify the movement,” says SACP secretary general, Solly Mapaila.

He joined EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia, ahead of his organisation’s congress. 

Mapaila says the ANC has become “one monolithic idea of neo-liberal free-marketers, with leaders who simply refuse to indulge their own partners.

“At the moment they don’t care, they can have a scant engagement with you and say there’s been consultation,” he says.

“Like this lie, they keep repeating on the GNU [Government of National Unity]," he adds.

Mapaila and his party have led the charge against the coalition agreement entered into, which includes the Democratic Alliance (DA). In conversations about its role during the talks, he paints a picture of an ally left behind when it comes to key decisions and deliberations on power sharing.

The party only cast its eyes on the statement of intent the evening before Cyril Ramaphosa was elected president in the national assembly, before then, Mapaila says it had been read to them by ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula on his iPad.

He added that the ANC also dodged attempts to include representatives from the communist party on its negotiation team.

At the heart of the current conflict, is the lack of commitment by the ANC to reconfiguring the alliance. Calls for this go as far back as 2002, with different leaders rising on the commitment to do this, which would allow not only the SACP, but other partners such as labour federation COSATU and civic organisation SANCO to have a say in key decisions and appointments.

Mapaila says most shocking in this regard, was seeing the ANC backtracking on a 2019 agreement reached by all partners. He says last year, the ANC’s national executive committee released a renewal document criticising an already agreed-upon document on a reconfigured alliance.

“We were surprised when they then developed a new document, not only that, but even criticising the communist party’s idea of a reconfiguring as an idea to liquidate the ANC… how can leadership, at that level of the NEC not go through their own document,” he questions.

Mapaila insists partnering with the DA is an error, disagreeing with a view peddled by the ANC that it’s a tactical decision.

“It's not tactic, this is a strategic decision that the ANC has decided on. Tactic would be a process in which they are under a tight corner and want to come out of that tight corner but if you ask how they are going to come out of this corner for instance… no tactic, it’s a direction they’ve taken,” he says.

The decision to divide the alliance’s support base at the polls could be costly - a view not lost on Mapaila, who says in the long run this decision, however difficult, would be to the benefit of the organisation.

He says if the ANC doesn’t play ball, the communist party won't rule out speaking to other left-leaning organisations.