ANC warns SACP against forming splinter group that will weaken alliance

JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) has warned the South African Communist Party (SACP) against forming a splinter organisation that will weaken the alliance.

The SACP's highest decision-making body recently resolved to contest the upcoming 2026 local government elections alone and not under the ANC banner. 

On Monday, the SACP held its annual Joe Slovo Memorial event at the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto.

READ: SACP to contest local govt elections 'to advance working class, not as alternative to GNU'

Since South Africa started having democratic elections in 1994, there have been a number of splinter parties that formed out of the ANC. 

These are namely Congress of the People (COPE), the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and more recently, the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party. 

ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the SACP should not contribute to the party's electoral decline. 

"Recently we have seen how these splinters have thoroughly weakened the ANC. We need to ask ourselves whether we are truly serious about winning state power on our own as an alliance because if we are, then we walk together. If we walk separately, we must accept state power is going to be diffused and it's no longer going to reside at the hands of the mass democratic movement."

In his closing speech, SACP secretary general, Solly Mapaila, said the organisation was not turning back on its decision to contest elections alone.