SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila expressed frustration with the lack of progress that the alliance is making in dealing with the country’s challenges.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is undeterred by an ultimatum from the ANC ahead of next year’s local government elections.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told reporters on Wednesday that the SACP’s decision to contest the election implies that their members will have to choose between the two parties.
“The implication of that decision says choose between the SACP and the ANC,” he said.
Mbalula said the ANC shares strategic information with the SACP, but this could also change.
“We share our strategy in terms of contesting elections, and they also attend our strategy workshops. They participate in all the processes led by the ANC in terms of the appointment of public representatives and so on. This decision means that all of those things will be reviewed in terms of how we work with them,” he said.
Don’t give up ANC membership
However, SACP spokesperson Mbulelo Mandlana said dual membership “is not a punishable offence”.
“The principle of dual membership in the alliance predates the electoral era of the South African revolution. The inconveniences of the era of elections should not be used to justify undermining the centrality of the principle of dual membership.”
Mandlana also said the SACP would not be held ransom by the ANC.
“The decisions of the individual alliance organisations are not subject to review by other organisations of the alliance; if that were the case, then the alliance would not be an alliance of equals but a subordination of some organisations by others.
“Against that backdrop, the very preposition that the ANC was engaged in an attempt to persuade the SACP against the express provisions of its national congress on contesting elections is not just incorrect but is contemptuous of the SACP as an organisation and indeed its members,” he said.
Inside knowledge
Mandlana said the SACP understands the implications of its decision to contest elections and would not interfere with the ANC’s strategy.
“The ANC has a right to invite whom it wants to invite into its election strategy meetings, the SACP will not interfere in that. The same is true of the SACP,” he said.
What about SACP leaders in government?
The ultimatum has sparked concerns that SACP members who currently hold prominent positions in local and national government could be left out in the dark. In the longer term, it may raise questions about the future of Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Blade Nzimande and newly-appointed higher education minister Buti Manamela in Cabinet.
Mandlana said SACP members in parliament and Cabinet have the right to be there since the party campaigned for the ANC in the previous elections.
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ANC ‘arrogance’
On the weekend, SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila expressed frustration with the lack of progress that the alliance is making in dealing with the country’s challenges.
He blamed the ANC for this and described the party as arrogant.
“We are sick of attending meaningless meetings with the ANC. The ANC is arrogant to us, they sometimes tell us take it or leave it,” he told supporters at the party’s 104th anniversary in KwaZulu-Natal.
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