The SACP will lose credibility if it rows back on its decision to contest next year’s local government elections in its own right. But pushing ahead could scupper its alliance with the ANC and Cosatu — and even lead to its own demise.
In 2017, the SACP took part in a by-election in the Metsimaholo municipality in the Free State, where the council had been dissolved, and won three of the 42 seats at stake.
That was the only time it has contested an election since 1994 (in the 2021 local government elections, the SACP councillors ran on an ANC ticket). But the Metsimaholo outcome cannot be extrapolated to the 2026 local government elections — it was a single municipality, and the party threw all its resources into the campaign.
Last week, the ANC and SACP held a high-level meeting at which they “reaffirmed unwavering collective commitment” to the tripartite alliance with Cosatu that was formalised in the 1990s.
However, the SACP was adamant that these talks did not change its decision, taken at a special national congress in December, to go it alone — a course of action that could dilute or even destroy whatever clout the communists have in swaying ANC policy.
Its decision also raises the question of whether the alliance can survive in any meaningful form.
The SACP has been grappling with whether to run for office in its own right since 2010, and took the plunge in December after the ANC partnered with the DA in the GNU.
Insiders say that in the days after the May 2024 elections, the SACP held talks with Floyd Shivambu, then still deputy leader of the EFF, and pushed heavily for the ANC to join forces with the EFF. But Shivambu’s “aggressive and arrogant tone” torpedoed these efforts.
Since then, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila has repeatedly criticised the GNU and has led the charge for the party to name its own candidates in the elections next year. He is looking at forming a “popular left front” or “left axis for socialism” with Cosatu and possibly other groups.
The SACP has now made representations to the Electoral Commission of South Africa to ensure that it remains registered as a political party.
The main dilemma arising from the SACP’s decision is the question of dual membership. This has allowed SACP members to ride the ANC’s coattails into municipal councils and provincial and national legislatures, and serve as everything from MMC to cabinet minister.
According to the ANC constitution, a member “joining or supporting a political organisation or party other than an organisation in alliance with the ANC” has committed an “act of misconduct”.
Membership comes with responsibility, the constitution prohibits members from campaigning against the ANC … If you campaign against the ANC, you effectively expel yourself
— ANC insider
Will the ANC still allow dual membership if the SACP fights it in an election? “Membership comes with responsibility, the constitution prohibits members from campaigning against the ANC … If you campaign against the ANC, you effectively expel yourself,” an ANC leader tells the FM. (Former president Jacob Zuma was expelled from the ANC because he set up and led the MK Party in the 2024 elections, though he continues to be in denial about his expulsion.)
So now the ANC will have to decide whether to remove the option of dual membership.
A major complexity the SACP faces is whether leaders such as Gwede Mantashe, Blade Nzimande and others would be willing to run in an election as SACP candidates, thereby jeopardising their chances of keeping their government posts.
Interestingly, when Mapaila spoke at a memorial event for SACP stalwart Joe Slovo in January, he said contesting the elections was not intended to weaken the alliance, but to strengthen it. It is hard to see the logic of this.
Those in the SACP who back the go-it-alone strategy say the party would strengthen its hand if, by virtue of votes won, it forced the ANC into a coalition with it. Of course, this would backfire if the SACP does not obtain the hoped-for electoral support.
An ANC insider warns that if the SACP wins, say, 1% of the vote, it would not hold much sway. It would lose its “political premium” in the alliance and could end up like the PAC or the Azanian People’s Organisation.
The FM understands that the thorny issue of dual membership and public representation was raised at the ANC-SACP meeting last week. A source says one ANC participant noted that if the SACP contested an election, many of its leaders would be campaigning against the very party that put them in government posts — and they might be doing so from the comfort of their state blue-light convoys.
The SACP leadership has yet to decide if it will contest municipalities across the country next year, or focus more narrowly on strategic councils.
Either way, an election campaign is an expensive undertaking. Even resource-flush parties have performed poorly in the past.
A precedent the SACP might ponder is that of the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, which contested the 2019 national elections with the full backing of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. The union at the time had up to 400,000 paid-up members and a powerful organisational machinery. The party put up posters from Ekurhuleni to Kimberley. But it did not win a single seat in parliament or any of the nine provincial legislatures — it got only 24,439 votes, or 0.14%.
“How does a party that can barely afford to pay its staff, pay to register candidates, for posters, rallies, buses? … Elections don’t come cheap,” says a senior alliance member.
The money issue is where the third alliance partner, Cosatu, enters the picture. It has a standing congress resolution to support the ANC in elections. This remains its policy, but it’s understood that the federation is heavily divided over the SACP’s decision.
How does a party that can barely afford to pay its staff, pay to register candidates, for posters, rallies, buses? … Elections don’t come cheap
— Alliance source
If Cosatu threw its weight behind the SACP, it would help the party financially. Cosatu unions rely on membership fees and some have investment companies that might help to bankroll an election campaign.
However, some key Cosatu office bearers oppose the SACP decision. Some large affiliates such as the National Education, Health & Allied Workers Union and the Police & Prisons Civil Rights Union back the SACP initiative, but others, including the South African Democratic Teachers Union, reject it.
As a federation Cosatu has kicked the can down the road, deferring a decision until its central committee meets in September.
A crucial question that union bosses will be asking themselves is whether it is worth risking the lucrative government posts on offer with the ANC by throwing in their lot with the largely untested SACP.
So by going it alone the SACP is taking a significant existential risk, unless, of course, it scores an MK Party-style shock triumph in the elections, which seems unlikely.
MK’s showing in May 2024 does illustrate just how complex and unpredictable the electoral terrain is. But most of Zuma’s support came in KwaZulu-Natal. The SACP has no natural regional or ethnic support base.
Should the SACP back down on the decision, its credibility will be shot. It seems to have forced itself into a corner, where the only way out is to grit its teeth and fight elections in the hope the voters will vindicate it.
Either way, the development indicates a new fluidity in the alliance, and could presage its collapse — which in turn may open new avenues for an ANC that has for decades been in the habit of looking over its left shoulder.
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