SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande has penned a discussion document calling for the party to rethink its 5th special congress decision to contest elections against its ally, the ANC. File image.
One of the South African Communist Party’s most senior leaders, Blade Nzimande, has penned a discussion document calling for the party to rethink its fifth special congress decision to contest elections against its ally, the ANC.
Nzimande, who is the party’s national chairperson, has called for a Special National Congress for honest debate, theoretical renewal and strategic repositioning.
“In a nutshell, that is to review the implementation of the fifth Special National Congress resolutions, to reassess the current conjuncture, and to chart a course that secures both the unity of the working class and the revolutionary integrity of the SACP within the unfolding struggle for socialism,” he said.
Nzimande’s paper marks a turning point for the SACP’s leadership, which has until now dug in its heels over its defiance against the ANC.
The SACP congress in December 2024 resolved to contest elections and fight for control of municipalities, pitting it against the ANC. This decision was believed to be without the backing of cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and senior provincial leaders who quietly raised concern about the future of the party should it stray from the ANC.
Tensions between the tripartite allies led by the ANC have been simmering, with the ANC refusing to implement an agreement to reconfigure its alliance. Its allies, Cosatu and the SACP, had a desire to have more influence in government policy to further their agenda.
To argue that the ANC cannot simply abandon dual membership is an infantile position, as it implies that only the SACP can determine its future. It is equally infantile to argue that since not all of Cosatu or other progressive unions would support us anyway, we can proceed regardless of the federation’s position
— Blade Nzimande
Nzimande, who held the fort as leader of the SACP from 1998 until 2022, is the first of the SACP veterans to come out against the party’s resolution.
Nzimande’s document will likely place him at loggerheads with his ally and successor, general-secretary Solly Mapaila, who has championed the decision to contest next year’s elections.
“Reviewing the 2024 resolution is not a matter of bureaucratic housekeeping, but a profound political necessity. The conditions that informed that decision, including the deepening crisis of governance, the fragmentation of the working-class movement and the ideological erosion within the Alliance, also continue to evolve.
“The contradictions of South Africa’s dependent capitalism, mass unemployment and social alienation have sharpened, while new forces within and outside the alliance continue to reshape the terrain of struggle. To ignore these shifts would be to succumb to dogmatism, and while confronting them squarely is to uphold the Leninist imperative of basing strategy on concrete analysis of the concrete situation.”
The implementation of the resolution has far-reaching implications, particularly for the principle of dual membership with the ANC, he said, adding that dual membership is the fundamental glue of the alliance between the SACP and the ANC.
“This has already created confusion within party ranks, with no clear, unified approach on how it should be handled. To argue that the ANC cannot simply abandon dual membership is an infantile position, as it implies that only the SACP can determine its future. It is equally infantile to argue that, since not all of Cosatu or other progressive unions would support us anyway, we can proceed regardless of the federation’s position. This risks dividing the progressive trade union movement and isolating the SACP within the alliance.
“The ANC has clearly indicated its willingness to engage the SACP on the implementation of this resolution. We must therefore discuss the modalities of engaging the ANC, Cosatu and Sanco. Refusing to engage would amount to deliberately driving the alliance toward division and isolating the SACP at a time when the balance of forces does not favour the working class or the consolidation of the national democratic revolution.”
Structural and ideological challenges
He pointed to internal weaknesses of the party which include structural and ideological challenges that impede full implementation. Chief among these is the erosion of internal cohesion.
“Democratic centralism, the principle of debate before decision, unity after decision, has been unevenly applied. In some structures, factional behaviour and personality-driven politics have supplanted collective leadership. This has weakened accountability mechanisms and fostered disunity, contradicting the Leninist conception of a disciplined vanguard.
“Relatedly, the personalisation of leadership poses a danger to the party’s democratic culture. When individual authority overshadows collective deliberation, it creates conditions for populism and ideological drift.”
Nzimande said the SACP must reaffirm that no leader, regardless of their stature, stands above the collective, arguing that leadership legitimacy derives not from charisma or populism but from adherence to the party programme, ideological clarity and accountability to the working class.
“Furthermore, the decline in ideological training has dulled the party’s analytical edge. A vanguard that ceases to study and interpret the material conditions risks becoming dogmatic or reactive.
The decision to contest elections in support of the ANC has always been an independent decision of the SACP. The independence of the SACP is not a narrow electoral question but a substantive strategic and tactical capacity to lead the working class across all terrains of struggle, both electoral and non-electoral
— Blade Nzimande
“The implementation of the 2024 resolution has revealed uneven understanding among cadres of Marxist-Leninist electoral strategy, particularly the dialectic between mass struggle and participation in bourgeois institutions. Revitalising political education is thus essential to prevent voluntarism and ensure that tactics serve strategy, not the other way around.”
The party must reassert its revolutionary role as the vanguard of the working class, not through rhetoric, wishful thinking or revolutionary slogans but through dialectical engagement with changing realities, he said. This would require a frank appraisal of the party’s organisational posture, its mass base and its relationship with the ANC and other progressive forces.
The SACP must guard against right-wing tendencies within the broader movement, which seek to weaken or break the alliance, as well as ultra-left forces pursuing the same outcome, he said
He criticised the SACP for failing to conduct a concrete analysis of the situation before making decisions on the party, state and popular power, including contesting elections.
“Although the party set several tasks to reach a scientifically grounded decision on contesting elections, many were not fulfilled. The party has no interests separate from the working class, thus leadership and the masses must be treated as a dialectical unity. Failure to do so leads to poor implementation, organisational paralysis and internal tensions. When Marxist-Leninist methods are abandoned, bureaucratic tendencies emerge, putting unity and discipline at risk.”
‘Autonomy must never be confused with isolationism’
He said the decision to contest elections independently was not born of frustration or factional impulse but of historical necessity, he said. The decision was a principled reaffirmation of the party’s revolutionary autonomy and a declaration that the working class must not remain a passive observer in its own liberation.
“However, this autonomy must never be confused with isolationism. The SACP does not seek to go it alone” in defiance of its allies and concrete realities, but rather it aims to lead from the front in reasserting working-class hegemony over the state and society. As a matter of fact, it is incorrect to characterise the decision to contest elections separately from the ANC as an assertion of our independence.
“The decision to contest elections in support of the ANC has always been an independent decision of the SACP. The independence of the SACP is not a narrow electoral question but a substantive strategic and tactical capacity to lead the working class across all terrains of struggle, both electoral and non-electoral.”
The party’s resolution to contest elections has been misrepresented internally, within the alliance and in sections of the public discourse, as an anti-ANC posture, he said.
“Although the resolution has reignited public interest in socialism, it has equally provoked reactionary resistance within the alliance. Indeed this resolution has assisted in clarifying the party’s role as vanguard, yet we are reminded that a vanguard without a mobilised class base is a vanguard in name only.”
The SACP recently disbanded its KwaZulu-Natal leadership for questioning the implications of its decision to contest elections and claiming that it feared that its campaign would be sabotaged.
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