So, who’s gonna vote for the SACP?

Over the weekend, it emerged that the SACP had removed Gwede Mantashe from his position on the Central Committee because he had missed too many meetings.

While attendance is important, it seems unlikely any political party would remove a former chair for something as minor as that. Rather, it looks like a clear political signal.

The party has also angrily rejected suggestions that it contest only the proportional representation ballot in the local government elections. This means that it is now clearly going to contest the local elections as an independent party. 

The SACP has long been the least visible member of the Tripartite Alliance. It has held long press conferences and made worthy statements.

But in essence, it has solidly backed the ANC in election after election, no matter what internal tensions and disagreements there may have been.

Read more: SACP hits back at ANC over ultimatum to ‘choose a side’ before 2026 elections

With just the exception of the Metsimoholo Municipality in the Free State, the SACP has fielded candidates under the ANC banner. In return, the ANC has included its members in local, provincial and national politics.

This may turn out to be the SACP’s major electoral problem.

The ANC albatross

Going into the local polls, the ANC’s biggest weakness is obvious. It is not providing services for millions of voters, and they are angry as a result.

But the SACP’s brand, and many of its visible leaders, are thoroughly intertwined in these failures, and often on the wrong side of history.

SACP Chairperson Dr Blade Nzimande has been in Cabinet since 2009, mostly as the Minister of Higher Education (along with other departments). And while there has been extensive progress in broadening access to higher education, it seems voters will not see it that way.

Instead, they will see someone who sold out to the ANC.

SACP Deputy National Chairperson Thulas Nxesi was the minister of labour and employment after 2019, and was virtually mute while our unemployment, and particularly our youth unemployment, continued to grow.

Before that, in 2013, he publicly defended the claim that the small artificial body of water at then president Jacob Zuma’s home in Nkandla was a “fire pool”.

Even before that, the SACP had defended the ANC government’s decision to implement e-tolling in Gauteng, despite the fundamental point that charging people to use a public good is the very antithesis of what a “communist party” should stand for.

Does the SACP really believe it has any other track record to point to besides the ANC’s while on the campaign trail?

Read more: SACP’s electoral ambitions: Will independence strengthen or undermine the ANC’s political future?

It is true that the SACP has been largely unaffected by claims of corruption. Its leaders, generally speaking, have not been implicated in taking money for themselves.

This might well be a strong argument with voters.

But the party may not be unblemished. It had to angrily deny claims that a set of audio recordings showed Nzimande discussing how service providers to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (which fell under his department at the time) should also make donations to the SACP.

This might be enough for other parties to claim it is no different from the ANC on corruption.

Looking back

At the same time, the party’s recent public discussions have often been about the past – about its role during the liberation struggle and the impact it had on the ANC.

While our history is fascinating, and the SACP has at times been crucially important (while this is contested, it appears the SACP was the main proponent in arguing that the ANC should become properly non-racial), how this will appeal to most voters is not clear.

The SACP is correct in that it is good and honourable to move away from identity politics. It is probably the only true route to political power.

But there is no public evidence that communism is the ideology to do it. 

Parties have tried this route. The Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, which had the backing of the union Numsa, failed to win more than 25,000 votes across the country in 2019.

What’s the plan?

At this point, the SACP may find it has to clearly explain to voters what it wants to do in government, and there are many questions it might have to answer in full.

Is the aim to really change the future direction of South Africa? In which direction? Is it about creating something new that has not been done before? Is there a hope that perhaps the SACP might find itself in a king-making position in a province, or even nationally? 

In a society where ideology has been replaced by cynicism, the SACP might well be seen as contesting elections simply to give its leaders political power. 

Read more: SACP firm on decision to contest elections independently, despite Ramaphosa’s plea

At the heart of its campaign may lie a question that could come to haunt it.

Voters and journalists are likely to continue to ask who it will plan to work with in a coalition. In other words, will it now continue to work with the ANC rather than with the DA?

If that is the case, the follow-up question is, what is the point of leaving the ANC-led alliance and then working with it in government?

At the same time, the party has been highly critical of the current national coalition and made it clear it would have preferred the ANC to work with other parties.

But this would mean the SACP, a communist party, would have to now work with nationalistic or identity parties such as the EFF and MK.

Given that the SACP was the first party in the alliance to move against former president Jacob Zuma, and now-EFF leader Julius Malema, this may be hard to do.

This means that, in fact, when it comes to coalitions, it may be difficult for the SACP to find people it can really work with.

Small parties, big opportunities

There are, of course, some prospects that could encourage the SACP to contest the local elections.

The coalition era means that smaller parties can have an outsized impact on our politics. Of course, the SACP will be competing with other smaller parties, but it could still hope to have an impact in this way.

It is true that despite the global failure of communism, how some services are now being almost privatised might lead to a huge pushback.

It may also be possible for the party to attract a new leader or group of leaders who can resonate with voters in a way that other leaders cannot.

It should also not be forgotten that the SACP may have a more organised membership base than other parties. If it has been able to keep this base together, and can mobilise them, then perhaps it could have a bigger impact than expected. 

But, on balance, it would appear that the SACP’s chances of playing a meaningful role in our politics, standing as an independent party, are rather remote. DM