The ANC has declined an invitation to attend the SA Communist Party’s (SACP) Conference of the Left later this week as relations between the alliance partners sharply deteriorate ahead of the November local government elections continues.
On Tuesday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party received an invitation but declined to attend, saying the composition of the attendees does not constitute a leftist organisations.
The snub marks one of the clearest signs yet of the widening rift after the SACP announced it would contest the local elections independently for the first time while insisting it remains part of the tripartite alliance.
The ANC, trade union federation Cosatu, the SACP and civic organisation are part of the tripartite alliance.
The party has also censured President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC leadership over the decision to form the government of national unity, which includes the DA, after the 2024 elections, arguing the party aligned itself with the wrong coalition partner.
“The ANC will not participate in the conference. We have, however, invited the leadership of the SACP to a principal-level engagement on the underlying questions, in the standing discipline of the alliance,” Mbalula said.
It is a coalition of negation — united by what it stands against, namely the ANC in government — and unable to articulate the positive programme by which the working class and the people would advance under its banner.”
— Fikile Mbalula, ANC secretary-general
“The composition is itself the political argument,” Mbalula told a press briefing on the outcomes of the ANC NEC meeting held over the weekend.
“A gathering that proposes to sit chambers of commerce alongside the Bolshevik Party, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party alongside Azapo, business formations alongside trade unions, is not a left formation in any received meaning of the term,” he said.
“It is a coalition of negation — united by what it stands against, namely the ANC in government — and unable to articulate the positive programme by which the working class and the people would advance under its banner.”
He said the conference was a “political project dressed in theoretical clothing”.
The three-day conference from May 29 is expected to be attended by more than 300 people, including the MK Party, the EFF, trade unions, think tanks and left-wing activists.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions said it would not attend, accusing the SACP of defending government policies that entrench austerity.
The governing party was formally invited and offered a brief speaking slot to deliver a message of support but chose not to participate.
Business Day understands some ANC national executive committee members voiced their concerns at the weekend’s meeting that the party’s participation would be viewed as an endorsement of an opposition party.
Business Day
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