EDITORIAL | The GNU is the new tripartite alliance

The latest fissures between the South African Communist Party and the ANC suggest their relations, which have been strained for a long time, are now at a new low.

SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila this week used an address at the Nehawu national political school to tear into the ANC for getting into bed with the DA and the FF Plus, among others, in the Government of National Unity.

Mapaila said the ANC of today was dominated by a ‘neoliberal faction’ that gravitates towards the DA and not the EFF, whose orientation was, like the ANC, liberation politics.

“The day after the election results were announced, we met as the alliance secretariat, we said, 'comrade (Fikile) Mbalula, at this moment the critical point is that the liberation forces must secure political power.' I went to the ANC. It was back and forth begging people to focus on the possible revolutionary path. It will be better to be irritated by the EFF in cabinet than to be irritated by the neoliberal forces who want to be dominant and take control of the revolution.”

Mapaila said the SACP’s input was ignored. Undeterred, he initiated talks with the EFF’s Floyd Shivambu, but this was rejected in favour of parties with colonial histories.

Mapaila said the SACP’s input was ignored. Undeterred, he initiated talks with the EFF’s Floyd Shivambu but this was rejected in favour of parties with colonial histories.

From a distance, it seems Mapaila is trying to sensitise workers about a new political reality that has become clearer with the formation of the GNU: the ANC is now forced through this marriage of convenience to consult more with the DA and FF Plus than with its tripartite alliance members. This must force the ANC’s erstwhile marriage partners to reconsider where they stand with the ANC in the aftermath of the party's new marriage with the DA.

It’s a special type of a new dawn. The ANC seems to have constituted a new tripartite alliance with the DA and FF Plus through mutual interests brought about by the new GNU. What the SACP and Cosatu’s workers will do, if anything, will become clearer in time.

When Mapaila says the dominant faction in the ANC seems strangely comfortable with the DA and FF Plus, he is effectively saying the ANC is no longer focused on the 'right type of politics' which prioritises relations with those focusing on helping victims of colonialism and apartheid, but on relations with those who were associated with or benefited from these policies.

But what constitutes the ‘right type of politics’ in the ANC has always been contested, which is why the party is often referred to as a broad church. He stopped short of calling the dominant faction within the ANC counter-revolutionaries in the same way that those who disagreed with former ANC president Thabo Mbeki’s Gear policies labelled his administration.

The ANC, through deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane, has dismissed Mapaila’s concerns as being “far from the truth”. She said further consultations will happen with the ANC and alliance structures.

Mokonyane added: “It is unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation, but in keeping with how we should work and respect the autonomy of every organisation, an appropriate platform to further our allies — as it is the case with our structures — will be used to engage. No-one was included and no-one was excluded in the process.”

Political commentators have, over the years, got it wrong about the imminent collapse of the tripartite alliance. The ANC’s loss of electoral support in the May elections is forcing it to create new alliances to survive. This choice may upset the communist bloc of the alliance and, perhaps, the workers in Cosatu that Mapaila was trying to influence.

While the tripartite alliance will live on for longer, questions about its utility will continue to be asked. For now, the new alliance in government, otherwise called the GNU, will force the participants to communicate and to relate even more closely.