The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cracks in the Tripartite Alliance are Deepening
Introduction
In the run-up to the May 2026 Conference of the Left, an ugly spat broke out into the open between the SACP and the ANC over the wisdom of convening such a conference and over who had been invited. The ANC, though invited, decided not to attend. This stand-off, the Conference and its offspring, the Council of the Left [1], cannot be understood separately from the political crises out of which they grew, which in turn result from the deepening economic and social crises in the country.
Due primarily to its capitulation to monopoly capital and western imperialism by means of neoliberal and austerity economic policies and measures, as well as serious failures of governance, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority in May 2024 and chose to govern with the DA and a string of smaller parties (the Government of National Unity – GNU). But this electoral defeat is fully shared by the SACP because they campaigned for the ANC alongside COSATU. For the SACP this was a crisis of epic proportions. For thirty years it had justified its subordination to the ANC with the argument that the Alliance – primarily the ANC – was the vehicle of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), the Stalinist two-stage programme that postpones socialism indefinitely.
Now that road has led its nationalist bourgeois partner to the embrace of the DA, the party of white monopoly capital. The formation of the GNU placed the SACP paws first on a hot tin roof. The Conference and Council of the Left are part of the strategies it employed to brave the storm it now finds itself in. Its most important strategy, though, is to contest the 2026 local government elections independently.
The fact that COSATU’s recent national congress had to be adjourned without deciding which Alliance partner to support in the municipal elections shows that this political turmoil reaches deep into the working class. This political crisis forces the class-conscious elements in the labour movement (and the working class broadly) to take stock of the overall situation and think about the political future of their movement. Gone are the steady political and theoretical concepts they were previously educated on. In their search for answers, they will look for sense and will at last be ready to hear out the revolutionary socialists they were told had nothing to contribute. The thing is, workers know that these groups never sold them out and always warned them that the politics of the ANC, the SACP and the Alliance would lead to a capitalist dead-end. The role played by the revolutionary socialists hitherto might seem small, but it has been very valuable and will always be part of the history and lessons of the struggle. Now is the time to build on those lessons by striking while the iron is hot.
Independent with Concerns but still Committed to the Alliance and the NDR
The party is fielding 4,418 ward candidates across the country, as well as candidates on proportional representation lists [2]. These are thousands of competitors against the ANC’s candidates, and it comes at a time when the ANC is already in a serious downward spiral at the ballot box; no wonder it is raving mad at the SACP and throwing a huge tantrum.
The SACP has not missed any opportunity to tell the world why it decided to stand independently and that it is at the same time not divorcing the ANC. At the launch of its election manifesto on 16 August 2026 the party declared that “the SACP remains committed to the Alliance and to the national democratic revolution”. The NDR, it explained, “is stuck. It is in a state of interregnum and has stalled because of a unilateral choice for a neo-liberal economic trajectory” [3]. It refuses to take responsibility for GEAR and implies it was unhappy with it for 28 years! As if GEAR in 1996 had been adopted behind the backs of the SACP rather than administered by its leading members in cabinet.
Two weeks later the Central Committee repeated that “the Communist Party remains committed to the Alliance as a strategic force of the National Democratic Revolution” and that it “seeks an Alliance in which all partners participate meaningfully in determining policy and strategic direction” [4]. The Central Committee statement makes it clear that the party is changing course because it failed to ‘reconfigure’ the Alliance, while the ANC gave priority to its coalition with right-wing forces. In fact, it continues that its independent electoral stand “…forms part of the struggle to rebuild working-class political representation and secure the reconfiguration of the Alliance”. So much for independence! The Stalinist politics remains the same, adjusted to the new conditions, and worst of all is the pretence of the party that it and the ANC had nothing to do with the neoliberal agenda – that level of deceit and hypocrisy is low indeed when the role of several of its ministers (some of them Central Committee members) in implementing the neoliberal policies is a matter of public record.
It was Jeff Radebe who oversaw the privatisation policy – now the SACP cannot say enough about how they oppose privatisation, even in their election manifesto – but not a word about this previous role. In another example of their hypocrisy, the national chairperson of the SACP, Blade Nzimande, is at this very moment the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation in the same Government of National Unity that the party is condemning. If the working class has no voice in the GNU, then who is the SACP chairperson speaking for?
The ANC on the War Path and the SACP not Backing Down
Despite the SACP’s attempts to calm its Alliance partner with reassuring and soothing words, the ANC leadership has gone on the war path and launched public and political attacks against the party. In August 2025, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula warned that the SACP’s decision to contest the 2026 elections would, in practice, force members holding dual membership to choose between the two parties [5]. In December 2025, the ANC’s National General Council resolved that SACP members serving in joint ANC election structures should recuse themselves.
These warnings have since assumed concrete form. The first public sign of the rupture came from the ANC’s 11th Limpopo provincial conference in Polokwane on 27 March 2026, where delegates booed an SACP representative and refused to let him finish the SACP’s message of support.
The SACP’s Provincial Secretary, Chuene Malebana, was removed from the Provincial Legislature by the ANC in what the party called a political witch-hunt against councillors and state employees associated with the Party [6].
The sharpest confrontation came in the Western Cape. The SACP Provincial Secretary, Benson Ngqentsu, was removed as an ANC Member of the Provincial Legislature [7] because of his SACP membership. SACP councillors were targeted at the same time. The SACP named Knysna and Overberg among the affected municipalities. On 18 September, the ANC removed Thando Matika as Executive Mayor of Knysna because he made himself available to stand for the SACP in November. He was, incidentally, arrested on 1 October with two others on corruption charges; these charges had nothing to do with his removal [8]. The purge also affected three councillors in Mossel Bay, George and Knysna who had switched allegiance.
The SACP responded defiantly. Its Western Cape structures denounced the move as a purge, accusing the ANC of having turned from leader of the Alliance into its dictator. They instructed all deployed cadres in the Legislature and in municipal councils to stay in their posts and ignore the ANC’s dismissal letters. The SACP is now threatening legal action against its Alliance partner! The ANC nonetheless prevailed because all the seats belong to it. As one commentator put it, Luthuli House’s message to public representatives holding dual ANC and SACP membership was that they must now choose sides [9].
Despite all the jabs at each other and the tough talk, common sense will prevail when the dust has settled, because the ANC and SACP have walked a very long road together. Eastern Cape Premier and ANC provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane, speaking at the SACP’s Red October launch in Great Kei, spoke of the need for the two Alliance partners to maintain good relations and to govern councils together after the elections where possible. He is also opposed to SACP members being excluded from ANC posts [10]. He could be speaking for a position forming within the ANC, or he could be putting out feelers on behalf of the ANC leadership. This looks like the road of least resistance for both parties, provided the ANC leadership can contain its arrogance.
Whether these developments will end in an open break will depend heavily on the 4 November results and whose side COSATU, whose reconvened National Congress is mere days away, decides to join.
The Battle for COSATU’s Support
The SACP’s independent run has put the federation it has long counted as its mass base on a hot tin roof of its own. For the first time in its forty-year history, COSATU’s National Congress broke up amid a powerful tussle over who would be the new president and general secretary, but in the background was the question of which party to vote for on 4 November [11]. It is due to reconvene from 12 to 15 October, barely three weeks before the municipal vote. This National Congress, which will map out the federation’s political future, may end in a whimper, or it might break the political situation in South Africa wide open.
The federation is gripped by the same crisis the SACP finds itself in. It is interesting to note that the federation attended the Conference of the Left. COSATU’s electoral machinery might prove critical for whoever wins its support. No wonder the ANC is fighting tooth and nail.
Conclusion
This unfolding situation is very curious indeed, as the Alliance has never before faced such a deep crisis. The outcome of the COSATU National Congress will be very impactful. This crisis in the Alliance is one of the biggest developments that should occupy revolutionary socialists, because both the SACP and COSATU are in political flux at the moment. The ANC and SACP have a very deep joint history with more that unites them than divides them – therefore the first instinct of both leaderships will be to kiss and make up – SACP members should not allow it. We have already pointed to a big sign that the ANC (or a wing of it) is putting out feelers in this direction to the SACP. If the SACP fails and performs poorly in the elections and the ANC refuses to let it in again, it might turn even more to the right; a genuine left wing could possibly also form inside it. The clock has struck – revolutionaries should use this situation to push the SACP as far to the left as possible by challenging its continued support for the Alliance and the NDR, its reformist history and approach, its hypocrisy with respect to the GNU, Marikana, and its other political crimes. Revolutionaries should not support a vote for the SACP, because it would be support for political dishonesty and would help the party to ‘reconfigure’ the Alliance with the ANC. The main call of the moment should be – Break from the ANC and the GNU!
FORWARD TO A GENUINE REVOLUTIONARY WORKING CLASS PARTY!
Notes
[1] Analysing the Conference and Council of the Left is not an objective of this paper; we will soon publish a more elaborate paper on it. We will show that it is a popular front in its intention, not a united front.
[2] SACP. (30/08/2026). Central Committee Statement 28–30 August 2026. Accessed 5/10/2026 from https://sacp.org.za/node/27301
[3] South African Communist Party. (16/08/2026). Statement on the 105th anniversary of the South African Communist Party and the launch of the 2026 Local Government Election Manifesto. Accessed 5/10/2026 from https://sacp.org.za/node/27297
[4] SACP, “Central Committee Statement,” 28–30 August 2026.
[5] Makgakga, M. (7/08/2025). Mbalula: SACP’s decision to contest elections will split members. Mail & Guardian. Accessed 6/10/2026 from https://mg.co.za/politics/2025-08-07-mbalula-sacp-s-decision-to-contest-elections-will-split-members/
[6] SACP Limpopo Provincial Executive Committee. (4/09/2026). SACP Limpopo PEC statement on the recent reconstitution of the Provincial Executive Council. Accessed 6/10/2026 from https://sacp.org.za/content/sacp-limpopo-pec-statement-recent-reconstitution-provincial-executive-council
[7] EWN. (31/08/2026). ANC expels SACP’s Benson Ngqentsu from Western Cape Legislature. Accessed 9/10/2026 from https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/08/31/anc-expels-sacp-s-benson-ngqentsu-from-western-cape-legislature
[8] Clarke, C. (23/09/2026). Knysna Municipality remains without mayor. EWN. Accessed 6/10/2026 from https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/09/23/knysna-municipality-remains-without-mayor
[9] Maqhina, M. (31/08/2026). ANC wields axe on Western Cape councillors after defections. Cape Argus. Accessed 7/10/2026 from https://capeargus.co.za/news/2026-08-31-anc-wields-axe-on-western-cape-councillors-after-defections/
[10] Tandwa, L. (5/10/2026). Oscar Mabuyane opens door to ANC-SACP coalition after elections. Sowetan. https://www.sowetan.co.za/politics/elections-2026/2026-10-05-oscar-mabuyane-opens-door-to-anc-sacp-coalition-after-elections/
[11] Dor, G. (17/09/2026). Why COSATU’s congress collapsed. Portside. Originally published in GroundUp, 17/09/2026. Accessed 7/10/2026 from https://portside.org/2026-09-17/why-cosatus-congress-collapsed
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