SA Communist Party members converge in Gauteng’s Ekurhuleni region in what could become a watershed moment in the ANC-headed Tripartite Alliance that has governed democratic South Africa since 1994. Bilateral relations between key components of the Tripartite Alliance, the ANC and SACP, have grown so frosty the fall-out is all but an open secret.
The SACP General Secretary, Solly Mapaila, a fierce critic of the ANC led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, could not hide his disdain over the ANC’s resolve to co-govern the country with the DA and a host of other smaller parties. The SACP regards the predominantly Democratic Alliance (DA) as a party of the erstwhile apartheid rulers who still hanker for the bygone times. Additionally, Mapaila and his party believe the ANC has embraced neoliberal policies espoused by the DA hook, line, and sinker!
In a media interaction with a select group of editors and senior political journalists in Johannesburg this week, Mapaila let rip into the ANC’s resolve to work with the DA in the Government of National Unity (GNU), which was established after the May general elections where no single party garnered sufficient votes to govern independently.
“There were parties on the left with which the ANC could have easily formed a minority government. These include the EFF in particular,” Mapaila said. “Without the DA, the ANC could have succeeded to put together a coalition of like-minded parties to the left, but then again”, said Mapaila, “they played their cards too close to their chest, shutting us (SACP) out of the centrality of the talks.”
“The ANC`s behavior has been very strange of late,” Mapaila added. Asked if his party would adopt a resolution to “serve divorce papers on the ANC” during its 5th Special Congress at the Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre in Boksburg over the next four days, which starts from 11-14 December, Mapaila responded: “We are not serving divorce papers on the ANC. We are asserting our independence.”
The SACP is highly likely to adopt a resolution to contest the 2026 local government elections independently. It would be a historic moment in democratic SA’s 30-year history. The SACP, which projects itself as the “vanguard of the working class”, has steadfastly campaigned side-by-side and together with the ANC at every election time. Consequently, SACP leaders have continuously served in the ANC-led cabinet as alliance partners, together with the giant trade union federation, COSATU.
In the current GNU arrangement, the SACP’s national chairperson, Dr Blade Nzimande, serves as the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. Going it alone will help the SACP to exercise its independence of thought with confusing the public. Mapaila believes that the ANC has gradually drifted from its historical mission, and ideology. He would not allow the ANC to drag the SACP along.
“What united us (ANC and SACP) is anti-imperialism and agenda for the working class. We believe the ANC has deviated from the National Democratic Revolution,” said Mapaila, who was flanked by the SACP’s 1st Deputy General Secretary, Madala Masuku, in apparent show of force and unity.
The historically rare public fallout between the ANC and SACP has led to speculation about the eventual arrival of the disintegration of the Tripartite Alliance that is credited with playing a protagonist role in the dismantling of apartheid in SA.
Mapaila had very few positive words to say about the current crop of the ANC leadership and the party president, Cyril Ramaphosa. The exasperation toward the ANC is, however, not exclusively Mapaila’s. The party leader reflects the overwhelming view in the SACP and throughout the Tripartite Alliance structures that has been enraged by ANC’s cooperation with the DA and Freedom Front-Plus, a rightwing predominantly white party.
As things stand today, it is very hard to say the ANC still represents the aspirations of the working class, especially the African masses, according to Mapaila and the SACP leadership. Judging by their words, posture and body language, the SACP is as good as gone away from the ANC.
“Wherever we go,” said the SACP firebrand, Mapaila, “comrades are itching for to go it alone. They don’t want us to go back. But of course the decision (to go it alone) will have to be taken at the appropriate forum.”
