The SACP does not feel “hard done by” with the ANC’s decision to ban it from its election strategy meetings, saying this is the new normal following its decision to contest the local government elections next year.
ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane last week confirmed she had chased away SACP members from the party's elections meeting in Mpumalanga.
, Mokonyane told reporters that her actions had become normal practice in ANC strategy meetings.
The ANC will not be “Zuma-fied, where you sit with people who are going to contest and target the same constituency as you, planning with you on how to make sure your candidate is the best candidate”.
“There is nothing untoward and we will continue doing it.”
The only thing unusual is that those comrades went through the invitation of the ANC and the ANC made a mistake to invite them, then later subjected them to rejection and a somewhat embarrassing scenario. That is worrisome to the communist party.
— Mbulelo Mandlana, SACP spokesperson
SACP spokesperson Mbulelo Mandlana said Mokonyane’s actions were discussed during a bilateral meeting with the ANC last week, and both parties recognise they are under no obligation to share each other's election strategy.
“The fact that the ANC is unwilling to have our comrades in their meetings where they are discussing their election strategy is not abnormal.”
“The only thing unusual is that those comrades went through the invitation of the ANC and the ANC made a mistake to invite them, then later subjected them to rejection and a somewhat embarrassing scenario. That is worrisome to the Communist Party,” he said.
Mandlana said it was reasonable for both organisations to keep their election cards close to their chest after the SACP resolved to go it alone.
He said the SACP did not consider itself a victim of exclusion.
“The elections themselves and the fact that we are going into them separately and in contest with each other should not be read as acting to declare the death and the end of the alliance, because the alliance is not the elections.”
TimesLIVE Premium reported on Tuesday that discussions in the ANC suggested that there was trouble afoot within the alliance despite the SACP’s sentiments.
Insiders privy to the national working committee meeting on Monday told TimesLIVE Premium the ANC officials had warned the SACP it could suffer the same fate as former president Jacob Zuma should it choose to contest the next local government elections.
They said the meeting deliberated on whether it should recommend that its national executive committee (NEC) enact its constitution against its oldest ally and whether the party should treat the SACP like an opposition party during election campaigns.
The ANC has been attempting to persuade the SACP to reverse its decision to contest elections. The SACP took the decision during its special congress in December.
The move was seen as a protest against the ANC for having failed to adhere to an alliance resolution for a reconfiguration that would afford ANC allies the same powers.
The SACP has in the past raised concerns about its waning influence on policy direction. The NWC is said to have discussed whether the SACP’s decision to contest elections would have implications for those in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s executive.
Mandlana, however, said the deployment of ministers was “an act of the alliance, not an act of the ANC or an act of the president”.
“Of course, by rules of the state and the executive and cabinet, the president has authority over ministers, but that should never be interpreted to mean that comrades who are deployed are in cabinet on behalf of the ANC in isolation of the Communist Party.
“To read it like that would be to read it as though comrades in government are absolved of their SACP membership and therefore their deployment is absolved of its alliance mandate. We are vindicated by this process that it is the alliance acting to build a common strategy that results in deployments, that results in strategic decisions.”
Mandlana said the SACP, together with the ANC, had constructed policies towards the democratic government in the 1990s, and those were actions “not of the ANC by itself, they were inspired by workers ... and therefore they were inspired by communists”.
“The ANC, of course, is the horse in front to represent the alliance, but it does not mean the alliance is devoid of political capacity to act and produce the sort of result we have come to see.”
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