ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe has warned the SACP that it is killing itself by deciding to contest next year’s local government elections.
In an interview with the Sunday Times on Tuesday, Mantashe said the ANC will develop a policy and programme that assesses itself beyond its alliance with the SACP.
We think that the party can walk the walk and actually kill itself. The SACP is committing suicide.
— ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe
Mantashe, who was removed from the SACP’s highest decision-making body between conferences, the central committee, said that the ANC had accepted the decision of the SACP.
“We think that the party can walk the walk and actually kill itself. The SACP is committing suicide.”
Mantashe was speaking on the sidelines of the ANC’s national general council, where SACP leader Madala Masuku was booed by delegates while delivering his message of support. The reaction by the delegates indicates tensions between the two allies.
TimesLIVE reported on Tuesday that the national executive committee had rejected the idea of dual membership for SACP members should it fail to reverse its decision to contest elections.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told delegates the party had given the SACP an ultimatum to either backtrack on its decision to contest elections on its own or have its members lose their ANC membership.
The decision to contest elections has also divided the SACP’s own leadership.
@timeslive_video ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe says the SACP contesting elections alone is “suicide,” adding the ANC is the only centre that drives change. #ancngc2025 #anc #gwedemantashe ♬ original sound - TimesLIVE
Its current chairperson, Blade Nzimande, penned a paper calling for the party to hold a special congress to review its decision.
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.
Nzimande, who was leader of the SACP from 1998 until 2022, was 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.
Nzimande said that reviewing the 2024 resolution is not a matter of bureaucratic housekeeping, but a profound political necessity.
In a veiled attack on Mapaila, 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.
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