South African Communist Party says it will allow some of its senior leaders, including those serving as Cabinet ministers, to campaign for the ANC in the upcoming local government elections without facing punishment, despite the party’s decision to contest elections independently.
SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila said the party expected all its members to openly campaign for the SACP, while recognising the reality of dual membership within the tripartite alliance.
“We expect all our members to campaign for the SACP. That’s the bottom line,” Mapaila said.
He acknowledged that some members held senior positions within the ANC and government and would be required to act accordingly.
“Understanding this dual role inside the ANC, we also expect some of them to take decisions to stand with the ANC, and we won’t punish them for that,” he said.
Mapaila said the party had been clear about this position internally and publicly.
“We have said it publicly. We have said it to our structures,” he said, adding that he did not understand the ongoing controversy around deployments and loyalty.
“We don’t understand what is this brouhaha is about, because people are just running after control. That period is finished.”
He said the SACP was now focused on redirecting the National Democratic Revolution towards addressing the material needs of the majority.
“We want to redirect the National Democratic Revolution to respond to the needs of the people, to fight against neoliberals, and to improve the working living conditions of the majority,” Mapaila said.
According to Mapaila, the country’s current economic direction made this impossible. “At the moment, at this current trajectory, it’s not going to be possible. So we need a radical shift,” he said, adding that the present moment created an opportunity for such change.
Mapaila said the SACP had concluded that the alliance was no longer capable of renewing itself or advancing the National Democratic Revolution.
“Even when we realise ourselves as a Communist Party that the alliance is unable to activate and rejuvenate itself and rejuvenate the National Democratic Revolution, we went out to convene a conference of the left,” he said.
He confirmed that preparations for the conference were already under way. “We have already set up the steering committee of the conference of the left. We will be holding that conference in the next couple of months,” Mapaila said.
He added that the conference was intended to clarify the party’s transformation agenda “not only beyond ourselves, but to the rest of society and progressive forces in the country”.
On the state of the trade union movement, Mapaila said the SACP would support any effort aimed at unity rather than further division.
“We will support any unity of the trade union movement as a whole, not its further divisions,” he said.
“Any other thing that may divide the working class, particularly the trade union movement, the SACP will not support that.”
He said the party had consistently called for unity across unions and federations, but warned against unity being undermined by personal disputes. “To the extent that this is used for nefarious reasons because we don’t like this and that particular individual, we will not be able to support that,” he said.
Mapaila confirmed that the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa had been invited to, and had accepted, an invitation to participate in the Conference of the Left. “NUMSA, for instance, has been invited, in fact, it has accepted the invitation to participate in the Conference of the Left,” he said.
He added that the SACP would also engage NUMSA bilaterally. “Not necessarily to say they must come back to COSATU,” Mapaila said. “If they take that decision, it’s their own decision. We won’t oppose that.”
Addressing criticism that the SACP had described the Government of National Unity as a sell-out arrangement, Mapaila said the party’s critique was political rather than personal. “When we critique the GNU and its economic policies, we’re not personal to the leader,” he said.
He acknowledged the role of President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying, “The president of the ANC is the custodian of its economic policy,” but insisted that this did not shield the policy direction from criticism.
“That economic policy is not changing the lives of the people and therefore needs radical change,” he said.
Mapaila said leadership should not be personalised. “Leaders don’t work like that,” he said, adding that decisions were collective and required engagement. “We must still find time to talk to each other.”
He said the SACP wanted a stronger role for the state in the economy. “We still want the role of government, particularly what we call public sector economy, to be strengthened, industrialisation to take shape in the country,” Mapaila said.
Instead, he said, government was moving in the opposite direction.
“What we see is government handing over the little it has under control to private capital,” Mapaila said, adding that such entities were “unaccountable to the people and they do as they please for their own private interest”.
Despite sharp differences over the GNU and economic policy, Mapaila said the SACP remained committed to engagement. “We continue to have open talks and engagement with all leaders of the nation,” he said.
Politics
