Is SACP going its own way?

ALONE: COMMUNISTS CERTAIN TO CONTEST ELECTIONS >>> Analysts predict stand will further fragment ANC voters.

- Eric Mthobeli Naki

ONCE UNITED. Panyaza Lesufi, now Gauteng premier, and members of the Tripartite Alliance, comprising the ANC, SA Communist Party and trade union federation Cosatu, picket at the Constitutional Court in 2022 in Joburg. The SACP has decided to go it alone in the upcoming municipal elections.

(Picture: Gallo Images)

It's final and the doubt has been swept away - the ANC and its struggle-era ally, the SACP, will not contest the upcoming local government elections as a united force.

The SACP has insisted on going it alone despite the ANC's attempt to convince it to abandon the idea. The ANC, which is bound to lose a large percentage of its votes to the SACP, has accepted the eventuality now that the SACP is no longer an electoral partner.

But more than anything, it is apparent that daggers are being drawn between the two, as ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula vows that any members campaigning for, or voting for, the SACP will be severely punished.

That's strong language to use against a partner that still wants to remain in the relationship.