ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula.
The ANC says it will not remove ministers of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from the cabinet despite its alliance partner’s decision to contest the 2026 local government elections alone.
The SACP is set to endorse a decision of its central committee to go it alone at the polls at its special congress in Johannesburg this coming weekend, ironically in the same venue where the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) will be meeting.
The ANC has also decided to defer its decision on what to do with the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committees (PEC) after their dismal showing in the 29 May elections until the first NEC meeting next year.
On Monday the ANC national working committee (NWC) met the Gauteng PEC to discuss what needed to be done to regain its majority.
The working committee has held fact-finding missions in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
It has considered disbanding the PECs and replacing them with task teams in a bid to strengthen the ANC’s structures ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
Speaking to journalists on Monday after the meeting between the national working committee and the Gauteng PEC, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula said they would discuss the fate of the two provinces in January.
“We will convene after the January 8 [statement rally] to finalise the work in terms of the NEC because we are almost at the end of the year,” Mbalula said.
“We would have met this week in the final NEC meeting but we have got the state visits that are taking place back-to-back and we also have the SACP national congress.”
“We also have the Sasco [South African Students Congress] national congress so it’s not going to give us adequate time to get the NEC to sit post the 16th [December] and consider the matters,” Mbalula said.
He said the working committee gave the PEC its analysis of what needed to be done to fix the ANC in the provinces.
“We came, we saw and we engaged. We shared our own perspective, we shared that as the NWC and we told them that given the situation, we believe that there is a necessary intervention that needs to be made,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula said the three options were: to maintain the status quo and “leave the PEC as it is”; provide reinforcements based on the needs of the provinces; or “totally overhaul and reorganise and that can only be done through disbandment”.
“We told them that if there’s a fourth option you want to bring to the table in terms of the situation we find ourselves in, you can do that.”
Last week, after meeting the KwaZulu-Natal PEC, Mbalula said the provincial leadership cannot match the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party in the province and requires intervention.
On Monday Mbalula said they needed to strengthen the ANC in the two provinces because this is where its voting numbers have historically come from.
He said the decision by the SACP to contest the 2026 local government would affect the alliance, but that they would not remove ministers affiliated to the communist party from government because this would be “unprincipled”.
“As much as they are members of the ANC and members of the SACP, they are here on their own and we are not going to remove anyone because of their membership of the SACP,” he said.
SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila announced two weeks ago that the party had decided to contest the 2026 local government elections, saying this would be finalised at its special national congress this week.
Last week SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo told the Mail & Guardian that although it intends to contest the next elections as an independent party, it will not act in opposition to the ANC in the post-election phase.
Mbalula said the ANC would do everything possible to undermine a decision that will have dire consequences for the alliance.
He said that they would “engage further” on the SACP’s decision to contest the 2026 elections.
“We have cautioned against that. It will have far-reaching implications on the alliance in terms of our partnership as allies going forward,” he said.
“If the SACP and ANC contest in [the same] ward, we are going to clash and we are going to divide the base, so it has got implications and that is why we cautioned against that.”
Mbalula said the ANC has been invited to deliver a message of support at the SACP’s upcoming congress.
“Deputy president [Paul] Mashatile will lead our delegation. He will also deliver our message to the SACP congress. We will go and listen to what the conference is saying and post the conference; we have a bilateral [meeting] with the SACP in January,” he said.