In its 5th Special National Congress in 2024, the SACP took a decision to actively contest all elections starting with local government elections.
It is not the first time the SACP is taking this decision, it’s just that in the previous times there were conditions.
These conditions included contesting elections “within or outside a reconfigured alliance”.
The 2024 congress removed all the conditions of contesting and inserted the date of the contest.
The 2026 local government elections will see the SACP on the ballot again but this time contesting all the wards and voting districts.
In the past years, this decision has been seen just as a threat by the party because its leaders would not want to leave the “gravy train”.
Now that everyone sees there is no going back from the decision and that secretary-general Solly Mapaila is adamant that the organisation will contest the 2026 local government elections, the tune has changed.
Serious questions about the state of the alliance and the National Democratic Revolution and the implications of membership have been raised.
Revolutionaries must concern themselves with the state of the alliance and the NDR and not membership of organisations.
The ANC and the SACP are two independent organisations bound together by the National Democratic Revolution and not membership.
Each of these organisations must determine who must become their members based on the character of each organisation.
Membership of the organisation should not be anyone’s preoccupation in this debate. What should concern all of us is the state of the National Democratic Revolution.
Both the ANC and the SACP adopted it as a programme that is beneficial to both organisations.
The ANC believes the programme will lead them to the national democratic society while the SACP believes it is a direct route to socialism.
As argued earlier, the ANC and the SACP are independent organisations which exist for different ends.
The SACP exists for a socialist revolution while the ANC has no business and interest in the socialist revolution because of its multi-class character.
Therefore, the congress decision of the SACP must not be measured by the effect it will have on the ANC election outcome.
This decision must be judged based on what the SACP wants to achieve — the socialist society.
The SACP, as the only organisation that carries the aspirations of the working class, feels the class is suffering from the heavy hand of capitalism.
The ANC acts as a victim in this decision of the SACP as if it has been betrayed by the party.
It believes the SACP needs the ANC’s permission to contest elections.
This is a product of the ANC believing it is the leader of the alliance and a big brother to the alliance partners.
Yet this is very far from the reality — the alliance has no leader, all alliance partners are equals, the ANC is just a face for the ballot.
Some are even arguing that this is not the correct time for the SACP to contest elections given the continuous decline in the election fortunes of the ANC as if the revolution has a cloak.
The SACP will contest the 2026 local government elections.
This is the sphere of government with poor service delivery, corruption and maltreatment of workers.
Even the auditor-general laments the skills and capacity in this sphere of government.
The SACP has been warning the ANC about the quality of deployees in local government.
In the 2017 by-elections in Metsimaholo, Free State, the SACP had to field its own candidates because its warnings fell on deaf ears.
The SACP has continuously warned against neoliberal policies adopted by the government without any success while the onslaught on the working class continues.
The working class in SA is poor, unemployed and second-class citizens in their own country.
The non-payment of the final leg of resolution 1 of 2018 is one of the cardinal sins of this government.
It seems that partnering with the right-wing DA e and FF+ in the government of national unity was the last nail in the coffin.
These are class adversaries of the SACP and when alliance partner governs with them, it is a serious problem.
The SACP’s decision to contest elections is influenced by Karl Marx’s assertion that the “history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle”.
The party is contesting elections for the class and not for the election fortunes of the ANC.
Ayanda Jam is an activist of the movement, and he writes in his personal capacity.