Your 'arrogance' has led us to contest elections, SACP tells ANC

SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila has rationalised its decision to break away from the ANC in the next local government election, claiming the ANC has failed to move with speed to reconfigure the tripartite alliance. 

Speaking at the party's fifth special congress, Mapaila said the SACP had been debating standing on its own in elections for more than two decades. He said the ANC had given the SACP no choice but to contest elections on its own.

Mapaila used time while delivering his political report to address the ANC's inability to live up to the commitment to renew the alliance.

Senior ANC leaders including former president Thabo Mbeki, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Snuki Zikalala attended the second day of the congress. 

The tipping in the ANC's relationship with the communist party was precipitated by the ANC's decision to enter into a GNU with the DA and Freedom Front Plus.

Mapaila pointed to ANC leaders including former ANC deputy president David Mabuza who he said had derailed the reconfiguration. 

“We must now contest elections with or without the reconfiguration of the alliance,” he said. 

Mapaila accused some in the ANC of being wedge drivers purporting its decision to contest elections as his own move. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa previously told the Sunday Times he believed that is not the view of the SACP but of Mapaila alone.

“If you have listened carefully, it has been solitary views of one person and that one person was involved in the discussions leading up to the decision. His own members are in the GNU.”

Mapaila said the ANC had such disregard for the SACP that it failed to have bilateral meetings with the party for more than a year.

“Our dear leadership in the ANC ignored this matter, they treated it scantly until last week,” he said. 

While the ANC had called for a meeting with the party in January, it would not change its decision to contest elections. 

“Deep down in my heart of hearts there is a bleeding part of me because the weaknesses of leadership have led to this situation. The arrogance of political power has led us to this. Factionalism, corruption and using politics to corrupt and sully the entire liberation movement has led us to this.”

However, SACP members would not renounce their dual membership and the alliance will still exist. The alliance would not die. 

Mapaila said some SACP members who had dual membership with the ANC and served in the executive were being threatened, adding they are told that if they take the decision they must know they are gone. 

He added that some of the SACP's most capable members were overlooked for deployment because they were members of the communist party.

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