SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila says the party will not submit to ANC demands forcing dual members to declare allegiance, as tensions rise within the alliance over plans to contest the 2026 local government elections independently.
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The South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Solly Mapaila says the party will not descend into “abuse” of the ANC, requiring members with dual membership to choose sides ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
He was speaking at a media briefing on Thursday in Johannesburg.
The remarks come as the ANC prepares to send letters to members holding dual membership after a National Executive Committee (NEC) decision to enforce constitutional provisions barring members from joining or supporting another political party.
The ANC has reportedly told members who also belong to the SACP to say, within 10 days from Thursday, which party they will support in the 2026 local government elections.
This is based on a rule that does not allow members to campaign for another political party.
This affects several senior leaders, including mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe, higher education minister Buti Manamela, who all belong to both organisations.
Mapaila said the SACP has never had a problem with the ANC contesting elections in its own right.
“The SACP has never regarded the ANC as an enemy for contesting elections in its own right. The SACP has never disciplined or threatened any of its members for participation in building, voting for and campaigning for the ANC.
“In fact, as the history of the past 30 years of our hard-won universal adult suffrage since 1994 shows, the SACP has not only embraced the ANC contesting elections in its own right but has also supported the ANC’s electoral contests – to the extent of the SACP even reserving its own right to contest elections directly in favour of voting for and campaigning for more votes beyond ours for the ANC within the framework of the Alliance.”
He said consistency is central to justice and solidarity.
“The moment you expect one side to do what you demonstrably are not prepared to do yourself, or to sustain forever what you have never done in a single moment of history, you must recognise that you are being unfair, with far-reaching implications.
“Today, the SACP addresses all its members, leaders and structures at a moment of major political consequence for the future of the Party, the Alliance, the revolutionary working-class struggle for socialism and, more broadly, our nation at large.”
He said the ANC NEC leadership has moved beyond tactical disagreement on the SACP’s decision to contest the 2026 local government elections independently.
“Through its internal speaking notes and related directives, the ANC has sought to turn a tactical difference into an administrative and disciplinary ultimatum directed at communists inside the ANC.
“The ANC demands declarations from members of the SACP and threatens action against those it believes are acting for the Party’s campaign, while insisting there should be no witch-hunts.”
He said this was not a minor procedural adjustment but “a serious anti-communist political move with far-reaching implications”, which also changes the character of the ANC.
“It amounts to an attempt to reinterpret the Alliance and dual membership in narrow electoral and one-sided compliance terms.
“It seeks to reduce a historic strategic relationship, forged in a bitter struggle for national liberation with shared blood, sacrifice and shared battles, into a one-sided demand for subordination and permanent support from an ally while never considering reciprocating the same support for a single moment or, literally, a single second of time measurement.
“This is, in substance, the essence of the ‘ultimatum’ to communists in the ANC.”
He said the SACP rejects the approach.
“We reject it not because we reject discipline. On the contrary, ours is a Party of iron discipline. We reject it because no genuine alliance can be sustained on the basis of coercion by one partner exercising its independence but coercing another against exercising its own independence.
“We reject it because the Strategic Alliance has never meant the liquidation of the Communist Party into the ANC.
“We reject it because dual membership was never meant to abolish the SACP's right to think, organise, campaign and lead struggles and develop tactics on any question as an independent party of the working class.”
Mapaila said the party rejects the approach because current challenges did not arise from the SACP’s decision to contest elections.
“They arose from political deviations on the liberation agenda and radical economic changes required to make liberation tangible and meaningful to the masses; prevarication on the common ownership of the land and the wealth beneath it; a deeper crisis in the movement, characterised by mass disillusionment and declining voter turnout; neoliberal drift by the government; control of the economy and economics of our country by monopoly capital and foreign forces, including the Harvard group; corruption and patronage; factionalism; and the marginalisation of working-class solutions in major policy questions.”
He said these issues are reflected in the common Alliance manifesto.
“No amount of administrative enforcement can resolve a political crisis whose roots lie in the lived reality of the people.
“The SACP, therefore, reaffirms clearly and without ambiguity that our decision to contest the 2026 local government elections directly under our own banner shall continue. We will implement it without fear.”
The SACP has insisted it will contest the elections independently while remaining within the tripartite alliance with the ANC and Cosatu.
Mapaila has long rejected the Government of National Unity (GNU), formed after the May 2024 general elections. He said the GNU which includes the DA and FF PLus does not represent the interests of black people and the working class.
He said the SACP has survived repression, including a ban under the Suppression of Communism Act imposed by the apartheid regime in 1950.
“No aspect of such a ban, or anything similar, however it is branded under our hard-won democratic dispensation, can succeed in instilling fear in the SACP.
“Our decision to contest the forthcoming elections directly was not taken lightly, emotionally or adventurously.”
He said the decision followed a “sober assessment” of the crisis facing local government, including weakening support for the liberation movement among working-class communities and the need to rebuild an independent political presence.
“Our independent contestation is not a retreat from the struggle for Alliance reconfiguration. It is part of that struggle. It is not a retreat from the National Democratic Revolution. It is a struggle over its class direction, its organisational content and its future.”
He accused the ANC of contradicting itself.
“The ANC leadership has been saying it respects the SACP's right to take its own decisions, but, in what is a negation of that respect, they have also been saying they disagree with our decision to stand for elections in our own right.
“In the same breath, the ANC goes on an intimidation tirade against its members, reflecting its intention to censure the communists regarding their right to take part in SACP activities.”
He said respect cannot coexist with ultimatums.
“Commitment to the Alliance cannot coexist with the administrative targeting of Communists.
“A declaration that there will be ‘no witch-hunts’ rings hollow when accompanied by instructions designed to isolate and mischievously monitor and discipline SACP members.”
He said the SACP’s contribution to electoral outcomes is well documented.
“Across successive elections, it was the organised working class, mobilised through SACP structures, trade unions, community formations and the broader mass democratic movement, which helped sustain the Alliance vote and deliver governing mandates.
“Even the 2024 outcome, with all its difficulties and setbacks, did not fall from the sky and was not produced by any Alliance partner campaigning and voting alone in isolation.”
He warned against marginalising the SACP.
“To seek to privatise the outcome of the elections and now marginalise the SACP and target its cadres through administrative enforcement is not only a breach of Alliance principles.
“It is a direct affront to the very forces that helped build, defend and repeatedly renew the electoral base of the movement.”
Mapaila urged discipline among members.
“No disciplined comrade must act individually under pressure or improvisation. No comrade must submit to intimidation and ultimatums, make unilateral declarations, tender resignations, or take strategic decisions affecting SACP membership and responsibilities without consultation with the Party.”
He said the SACP will not accede to ultimatums.
“All SACP members who are also ANC members must continue to conduct themselves with dignity, discipline and revolutionary ethics.
“We will not answer provocation with provocation.
“We will not descend into abuse, mudslinging or anti-ANC rhetoric.”
He said members must support one another and intensify political work.
“The answer to intimidation is not paralysis. It is an organisation.”
Mapaila also defended the dual membership.
“Dual membership is not a favour granted by one organisation to another.
“To reinterpret the Alliance or dual membership as an arrangement valid only when the SACP is electorally subordinate is to empty it of all its historical mission or political meaning.”
simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za
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