The Eastern Cape's South African Communist Party (SACP) on Monday confirmed its support for the ANC in the upcoming elections.
"The provincial executive committee meeting has in this context affirmed the need to ensure the overwhelming victory of the ANC in the coming general elections by being active [in] the election campaign as ANC members in our own right and independently as the SACP," it said in a statement.
The SACP in the province held its sixth congress provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting in East London over the weekend.
The meeting dealt with the state of the party and the political situation in South Africa.
Spokesperson Siyabonga Mdodi said the PEC noted with "disgust the failed provocation march by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to the ANC headquarters, Chief Albert Luthuli House", on Wednesday.
"The PEC asserted that a wolf in a sheep skin will always be a wolf! We believe that the DA should be held responsible for any violence if there was any during the march, which is the culmination of their declared war during peacetime," Mdodi said.
Right to defend
He said the ANC had the right to defend its headquarters because it was under attack by the DA.
The DA's march for "real jobs" started at the Westgate transport hub in Johannesburg on Wednesday and was supposed to end at Beyers Naudé Square, a block from the ANC's headquarters.
However, the procession was cut short when police stopped the DA at the corner of Marshall and Rissik streets and told them it was too dangerous to continue.
A short while later, a group of people wearing ANC attire ran towards the marchers and police fired stun grenades at them.
On Miriam Makeba Street, a group, also dressed in ANC attire, threw petrol bombs at police. – Sapa