Mantashe: SACP will pay a heavy price at elections

The South African Communist Party (SACP) will pay a heavy price and risks eliminating itself if it contests the 2026 local government elections outside its alliance with the ANC. This is according to national chairperson Gwede Mantashe who warned this week.

Last year, the SACP resolved to contest the upcoming local government elections independently of its alliance partner, arguing that the former liberation movement had sold out by working with the Democratic Alliance in the government of national unity formed after the May 2024 general elections.

The Communist Party also says the ANC has undermined it when it comes to taking major decisions within the alliance, which also includes labour federation Cosatu.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Mail & Guardian as the ANC prepared for celebrations at Moruleng Stadium in North West this weekend to mark the 114th anniversary of its formation on January 8, 1912, Mantashe, who has dual membership of both parties, said ditching the alliance could result in the SACP’s  complete removal from the public space.

“A few weeks ago, I said they are committing suicide and they are going to pay a heavy price for it and I’m convinced about that,” he said.

“Many of them are young and we are old communists. When we advise them, they don’t listen and they think we are too old-fashioned to understand the issues.”

On Monday, during the commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the death of anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo, who was a prominent member of both parties, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa also warned the SACP that its decision to contest elections independently could weaken the broader liberation alliance and distract voters from the national democratic agenda.

“The ANC is on record: the decision by a party to go alone in elections will, we believe, be a historic mistake. It can distract our people from knowing who to vote for and power could be wrested from our hands,” Ramaphosa said.

He added that the alliance has been central to the country’s liberation struggle and all partners were custodians of a revolutionary project in which South Africans had invested hope and expectation.

“We should always look at what can strengthen the alliance with a view to advancing the National Democratic Revolution,” Ramaphosa said. “It is our responsibility as leaders and members of all alliance formations to continue working together in pursuit of this common objective.”

Following the ANC’s 5th national general council (NGC) in December, some internal ANC sources said the SACP’s decision could potentially divide the party itself, as some cabinet ministers and MECs currently serve in government under the ANC banner.

The ANC has previously said it would not remove SACP members from government but it has raised concerns about loyalty, with some arguing that dual membership should be done away with. In his closing remarks at the NGC, Ramaphosa called on SACP members to recuse themselves from ANC election strategy processes.

This week, Mantashe told the M&G that a party that neglects mass formations for ideological reasons is misguided. He said that while this move would be bad for the ANC during elections, it would be equally disastrous for the SACP.

“You don’t become the architect of a disaster as an ideological super party, supposedly. You should be doing things differently because you are an ideological super party. It’s a mistake and the elections will prove that,” he said.

Mantashe also reiterated that he would not contest any position at the ANC’s elective conference next year. He urged party members to refrain from electing a president based solely on popularity but instead choose someone who could work collectively.

“I’m not standing; I’m too old. I think the ANC must select a president and be thorough in selecting a collective because it is not the individual who makes the ANC succeed, it is the collective team,” he said.

“Leave this idea of looking at the ANC president as a strongman working against the collective. That will not work. What will work is a collective leadership that will lead the ANC out of disaster. I have looked at factionalism around the world to see which political party does not have factions and I discovered that there is none. 

“What is more important is to ensure that factions do not run the party. The party must run its affairs, with factions contesting each other within the framework of the party.”

Meanwhile, Mantashe defended Ramaphosa over his role in the Marikana tragedy of 2012, saying the ANC leader did not owe the mining area in the North West a visit and  expecting him to do so was an “abnormal arrangement”.

Party leaders have been criss-crossing the province ahead of the January 8 celebrations at Moruleng Stadium, with many hoping that Ramaphosa would take the opportunity to visit Marikana for the first time since the massacre of striking mineworkers in August 2012 which embroiled him.

The widows and children of the 34 miners shot dead by police during a strike at the operation then owned by Lonmin have long accused Ramaphosa of playing a role in the killings, as he was a shareholder and a non-executive director at the time.

But Mantashe defended Ramaphosa, telling the M&G that South Africa’s president at the time was Jacob Zuma, who has not been held accountable for the incident.

“To expect Ramaphosa to go to Marikana is an abnormal arrangement. Zuma was the president and there was a minister of police and nobody talks about that. 

“Ramaphosa does not owe Marikana a visit; he owes Marikana a visit like everybody else,” he said. “Everybody talks about Ramaphosa being on the board of a company operating in Marikana and communicating with the police out of concern because there were running battles there. That still needs to be put into proper perspective.”

The mineworkers, many of them affiliated with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), were demanding a basic monthly wage of about R12500, which was roughly three times their then pay of around R4000 – R6000 per month. In total, 44 people died during the strike.

Mantashe said that by the time the disaster occurred, AMCU had already killed 10 people, including two police officers and security personnel, but this fact was often ignored.

“Everybody talks about the 34 who were mowed down by the police as if they were dealing with angels. When that happens, you are creating an environment for conflict. If you want to see how the police become irrational, kill one of them,” he told the M&G.

In September last year, Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party  won its first ward outside of KwaZulu-Natal, securing 43% of the vote in Photsaneng, Rustenburg — a ward previously held by the ANC that became vacant after the councillor died. The ward includes Marikana. The ANC received 33% of the vote, down sharply from 44% in the 2021 local government elections.

The loss was embarrassing for the ANC and there were fears it could be replicated in other areas, a source in the Bojanala region told M&G at the time.

This week, Mantashe said MK had only taken a single ward and there was no real weight to it. He said North West was usually supportive of the ANC, and noted that it was the third-biggest contributor to the party’s 2024 general election votes. The ANC was more concerned about the rise of multiple breakaway parties rather than the MK party alone, he added.

“It’s our former president (Zuma) who formed the MK party. That in itself is abnormal — that a president of a party breaks away, forms a political party and takes followers from the ANC. That is what we are addressing as the ANC,” he said.

“What we know is that the administrative skills of the president of the MK party have left much to be desired. That organisation is going to implode on its own because he is not going to treat it as a party; he is going to treat it as a family asset. We must just be patient and wait for that.

“We are worried about all the breakaway parties, not only the MK party. When a breakaway party leaves, it takes a small piece of the ANC with it. The trend that worries the ANC is the formation of splinter parties because those smaller parties fish in the same pond — and the more they fish, the smaller the ANC becomes.”