HAVING sealed its decision to contest future elections, the South African Communist Party (SACP) might be confronted by the reality that it lacked a support base outside the ANC-led alliance.
Political analyst Tessa Dooms from the Rivonia Circle, a Johannesburg-based think tank, expressed this view in reaction to the party's recent groundbreaking decision.
“Whether it contests separately or not, it still has members within the ANC, and what members do with that will not be up to the SACP.
“Its members could easily vote for the ANC and not for the SACP,” said Dooms.
The SACP held its 5th special national congress in Boksburg this week to discuss, among other major issues, its relationship with the ANC following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), which involved the DA.
The relationship between the SACP and ANC had been rocky during the presidencies of Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and now Cyril Ramaphosa.
Several members of the SACP’s Central Committee were ministers and deputy ministers in the GNU. They include Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande, who is the party’s national chairperson, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, who is also ANC national chairperson, Higher Education Deputy Minister Buti Manamela and Finance Deputy Minister David Masondo who is the party’s second deputy general secretary.
The future of the alliance, whose other members were Cosatu and Sanco, seemingly hangs in the balance as it remains unclear how the SACP decision would affect it.
Dooms felt that the alliance had no benefit to the members of the public, but a lot to its member parties who enjoyed dual membership.
“It has the benefit of having a deployment relationship with the ANC where the ANC deploys within government structures.
“It had been of benefit to the organisation (SACP) and there is always the question of what is its benefit to the society and the working class, that the SACP claims to represent, and there has been a little benefit that can be pointed to,” she said.
However, she could not see the alliance, which she said might continue to exist only in theory, coming to an end.
“I just don’t think the ANC find the SACP threatening but I think they find Jacob Zuma and the MKP more threatening than the SACP contesting the Wards,” she said.
She said after the local government elections, if the alliance still existed, both parties might be in coalition in municipalities where SACP received substantial council seats.
Dooms said that Ramaphosa has the prerogative to appoint people from other parties into his cabinet which might save SACP leaders from losing his government position.
“The fact is that there is still a relationship between the ANC and the SACP and the fact that they (SACP) would be contesting at the local government level does not have any bearing on the national arrangement,” said Dooms.
Nzimande said the fact that he was deployed to the GNU by SACP dissatisfied with DA being in the government “because of what the DA stands for which we regard as being diametrically opposed to what we stand for”.
Despite his criticism of the GNU, Nzimande said he would not resign from the cabinet.
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told the media that Cabinet members hold dual membership would not be recalled as a result of the SACP decision.
“It is because they are members of the ANC in good standing,” she said.
She said this did not mean that the SACP would now be viewed as opposition to the ANC.