Mbalula slams SACP’s plan to contest 2026 elections

ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, has launched a scathing attack on the SA Communist Party (SACP), calling its decision to contest the 2026 local government elections outside of the ANC-led alliance a “monumental disaster” and a threat to the unity of the liberation movement.

- KAMOGELO MOICHELA

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the ANC’s visit to the family of the late Dikgang Uhuru Moiloa, Mbalula described the SACP’s resolution to go it alone as not only ideologically flawed.

But also politically dangerous, warning that it would fracture the historic tripartite alliance between the ANC, SACP and Cosatu — a bedrock of South Africa’s democratic revolution.

“We have reflected at the theoretical level on the implications of this disastrous decision,” Mbalula said.

“Tt is clear to us that there is no ideological basis for the Communist Party to contest elections independently; he said.

“This decision will weaken us. It will not strengthen us. It will not even advance socialism — it will derail the National Democratic Revolution (NDR),”

The SACP, which has long been considered the vanguard of the working class within the ANC-led alliance, resolved at its 2022 national congress to explore contesting elections directly.