Dr David Masondo, in his article titled “Preserving the Alliance Crucial for the ANC” (Sunday Times, July 20), contributes a timely and noteworthy perspective on the future of the alliance constitutive of the ANC, SACP, Cosatu and Sanco. As the second deputy general secretary of the SACP, an ANC NEC member, and deputy minister of finance, Dr Masondo holds a unique vantage point from which to speak on matters central to the revolutionary forces in South Africa.
His call for preserving the alliance should be welcomed by all forces of the national liberation struggle. However, any sound and progressive discussion about the alliance must go beyond preservation for preservation’s sake, the form of the alliance must be aligned with the alliance’s historic mission, rooted in the principles of our shared national democratic revolution — the SACP’s direct route towards socialism.
Dr Masondo’s analysis, while valuable in its acknowledgment of factionalism, internal fragmentation with the ANC and disillusionment among voters, fails to confront the source of the electoral decline of the ANC and other former liberation movements post-national independence. It is insufficient to attribute these setbacks primarily to internal fragmentation. In South Africa’s realities, the real crisis lies in the post-1994 economic trajectory of neoliberal austerity that has undermined the very foundations of our shared national democratic revolution (NDR).
Post-liberation governments, including that of the ANC, adopted policies inspired by the discredited neoliberal agenda advanced by Western imperialist institutions, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. These are underpinned by coercive economic strategies such as restrictive fiscal, monetary, and industrial neoliberal austerity through- trade liberalisation, deregulation, privatisation and budget austerity.
This trajectory, imposed and reinforced by international financial institutions as mentioned above, has led to deindustrialisation, mass unemployment, growing inequality, and poverty.
Dr Masondo’s reluctance to directly confront this economic orthodoxy is a glaring omission, an omission that weakens the strategic value of his analysis and contribution.
Dr Masondo’s concerns regarding the SACP’s decision to contest the 2026 local government elections independently of the ANC are noted and worthy of a public and internal discussion with the SACP. He warns that this could further complicate the political landscape for disillusioned voters. However, his concern inadvertently overlooks the deepening political and historic ideological divergences within the alliance.
What we are witnessing is not merely a tactical difference, but the outcome of years of sidelining the alliance’s working-class components in favour of technocratic and market-driven governance.
The targeting of SACP cadres within ANC structures, which Dr Masondo acknowledges, is not a new phenomenon. As far back as 1994, in then-president Thabo Mbeki’s infamous “Unmandated Reflections”, reflections he used to justify the ANC’s relationship with international capital, a clear hostility towards the party was already visible. This anti-communist posture sometimes explicit, often latent remains a key feature of internal ANC politics and should not be underestimated.
In response, the SACP must neither retreat nor become complicit in attempts to marginalise those who still operate within ANC structures under the banner of working-class politics given the SACP’s decision to contest elections.
There is a clear recognition that discussions are ongoing about how to respond to the SACP’s 2026 election decision. But the strategic question is no longer whether the SACP should contest, but how best to do so in a manner that advances the NDR
There is a clear recognition that discussions are ongoing about how to respond to the SACP’s 2026 election decision. But the strategic question is no longer whether the SACP should contest, but how best to do so in a manner that advances the NDR. The party faces a historic challenge: contesting independently in its current organisational form, the party risks liquidation, but backtracking the SACP risk perishing in the political domain. Let us face it, the stakes are high, and only a combination of grounded practical experience and sound revolutionary theory can guide the way forward.
Furthermore, while the debate is often framed around the ANC and SACP, it is crucial to remember that the alliance is broader: Cosatu, Sanco, and the Progressive Youth Alliance are integral parts of this political front for the ongoing struggle for the total liberation of the black majority people, the working class. Their role in shaping the path forward cannot be ignored or minimised in favour of ANC-SACP political dialogue.
On the point of complementarity, I agree with Dr Masondo that if the SACP contestation is executed strategically, it could strengthen the broader revolutionary movement. However, his subjective bias weakens his argument by framing this potential only in terms of strengthening the ANC’s electoral prospects. It must sink to all that the SACP is not a support structure of the ANC, rather it is a working-class party in its own right. The primary goal must not be to rescue the ANC, but to defend, deepen and advance the NDR in a manner that centres working-class interests, this should be the bottom-line for all revolutionary forces.
We must also acknowledge that the discussion about the SACP’s role in relation to state power has been ongoing since the early 2000s. Numerous SACP and Cosatu discussion documents proposed the reconfiguration of the alliance to ensure working-class hegemony, not just presence. The ANC’s refusal to seriously engage this debate, and its ridiculing of proposals, has now reached a tipping point. Let us set the record straight: the crisis is not merely about who holds office, but about the ideological trajectory of our revolution.
As Gramsci teaches us, political hegemony is not about formal representation alone, essentially, it is about the dominance of working-class ideas. Presently, dominant ideas are not of the working class, but of neoliberalism, a developmental stage of capitalism. Given the inevitability of coalition governments irrespective of levels and their form, the ANC continues to align with class antagonistic forces. These are not only political realignments at a tactical level, but they also present a platform for the realignment of neoliberal and right-wing class forces in the state.
In the final analysis, in these uncharted political waters, all components of the national liberation movement; ANC, SACP, Cosatu, Sanco must recommit to the historic mission of the NDR. But to do so, they must also be honest about the present state of the NDR and the trajectory it is taking. Therefore, the ANC, in its current form, cannot be given sole political responsibility for the revolution. The time has come for the SACP and Cosatu to assert their political independence as working-class organisations, or risk perishing under the weight of complicity.
Essentially, the question is not just how to preserve the alliance, but how to reconfigure it into a fighting force for socialist-orientated national democratic revolution, one that speaks not to the international capitalist markets, but to the primary motive forces of our revolution, the millions who remain landless, unemployed, subjected to economic precarity, casualised and EPWP-ised.
• Benson Ngqentsu is provincial secretary of the South African Communist Party (Western Cape) Member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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