'A party only in name'

SACP: GOING IT ALONE IN THE POLLS WILL EMBARRASS THEM, SAYS EXPERT

- Brian Sokutu

With the ANC emerging from last year's bruising national polls, having garnered 40.1% of the votes, the SA Communist Party's (SACP) decision to go it alone in the 2026 local government elections will erode the governing party's support base, political experts warned yesterday.

They also maintained that the SACP strategy could backfire on its influence within ANC decision-making structures.

Their comments followed remarks made this week by SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila during the 30th commemoration in Soweto of the death of anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Joe Slovo.

While President Cyril Ramaphosa cautioned that the SACP stance would weaken the tripartite alliance and derail the national democratic revolution (NDR) programme, Mapaila reiterated the SACP would fight the polls alone.

Political analyst Dr Ongama Mtimka, of Nelson Mandela University's department of democratisation and state transformation, said the ANC could not afford to lose any of its members, "given that it is a party already well below 50%, in terms of its share of national elections".