ANC urges SACP to remain in alliance

14th congress delegates to decide if party will become ‘standalone’

TUESDAY JULY 11 2017

THE SA Communist Party (SACP) should remain within the ANC-led alliance and help rebuild it, ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa has said . “The SACP leaving the alliance will not help it or the ANC… there will be no winner out of that. The SACP should emerge from that conference with the aim to strengthen the alliance,” Kodwa said.

The SACP, whose leaders have criticised President Jacob Zuma’s leadership, is holding it’s 14th congress to elect new leaders. The party is expected to decide whether it would leave the alliance and contest future elections alone, or keep endorsing the ANC that is marred by internal battles and factionalism.

The SACP has banned Zuma from addressing its events, including the congress held in Ekurhuleni. The other alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), also banned Zuma from speaking at its events, following a chaotic Workers Day rally in the Free State, where Zuma was heckled by workers and could not deliver his keynote address.

The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) said in apparent retaliation that it will not attend the congress of the SACP, despite being invited.

“The MKMVA acknowledges with gratitude the invitation that we have received to participate in the 14th National Congress of the South African Communist Party.

“After careful consideration MKMVA has, however, decided not to attend the SACP National Congress,” MKMVA chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe said.

“The current unfortunate path that the SACP has taken to disregard the well-established tradition that alliance partners do not prescribe to each other about internal organisational matters by trying to prescribe to the ANC about who should be its president is not conducive for our attendance,” said Maphatsoe.

The week-long SACP national congress is expected to elect new leadership for the next five-year term and decide whether to contest elections as a standalone party.

“The MKMVA values the tripartite alliance, but we also believe that it is critical for the SACP and Cosatu to return to the fundamentals that made the alliance such a great success and a formidable force in our liberation Struggle,” said Maphatsoe. – ANA