SACP takes faltering steps towards polls
Party opts to contest elections but not to leave alliance
The South African Communist Party (SACP) decision to contest elections has the hallmarks of a radical resolution, but it came with an add-on: the party will not yet leave the tripartite alliance.
The South African Communist Party’s (SACP’s) decision to contest elections has the hallmarks of a radical resolution, but it came with an add-on: the party will not yet leave the tripartite alliance.
This means the party has not entirely committed to electoral politics. And contesting the polls while remaining in the alliance could simply symbolise a ruse to dupe voters who are not willing to vote for the ANC to give the party their vote through its more amenable sounding ally.
The SACP continues to leave open a wide back door to remain in the alliance under an ANC led by a less hostile leadership than the nationalists who will ascend to power should Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma succeed Jacob Zuma as ANC president in December.
What the SACP has effectively done is put the ANC on terms — the governing party has a lot to lose from a rupture in the alliance and how it responds will be critical to its own survival as well as that of its allies in their current form.
The SACP, then, is seeking to influence the outcome of the ANC’s leadership conference and put in place an exit plan, should things not go its way. It recognises that a Dlamini-Zuma win is likely to have a harrowing effect on the governing party’s 2019 electoral fortunes.
While conflict in the alliance is not new, a recent rupture among its formations provides insight into the ramifications of a split by the SACP and Cosatu from the ANC-led alliance.
After the decision by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) to no longer campaign for the ANC in 2013 and its subsequent expulsion from Cosatu in 2014, the ANC’s electoral support declined in areas in which Numsa held a strong presence. This included Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
What the communist party has cemented over recent years is the considerable sway it holds over Cosatu unions — most significantly the federation’s public sector unions. Unions also hold considerable sway within the communist party.
In fact, most of their top leadership are also in SACP leadership structures.
Its decision to contest elections was heavily influenced by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and structures within the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru). Along with the South African Democratic Teachers Union, Nehawu and Popcru are closely aligned to the SACP and the three unions together make up the majority of Cosatu’s about 1.4-million members.
Hence, its resolution on contesting elections — it does not specify which election — suggests the SACP must play a role in consolidating a left popular front of working class forces, with a particular focus on Cosatu and its affiliates.
There are lessons to be learned from Numsa’s foray into electoral politics. Its limited participation in the 2016 polls held a key lesson: it was not ready.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said in his closing address at the congress that the alliance must be reconfigured to allow all its formations to play an equal role.
But therein lies the uncomfortable truth that complicates the SACP’s attempt to enter electoral politics: Nzimande and others in its top brass are so tainted by the Zuma administration that their presence in the party’s upper echelons as it hopes to win over voters will be problematic.