Dimakatso Leshoro
The SACP has strongly criticised the ANC's economic policies calling them neoliberal. It says the ANC has had 22 years to change its ways but has instead dug in its heels. Addressing the media after the congress, SACP Secretary General Solly Mapaila says the party wants the alliance to be reconfigured where decisions are taken together, and not the ANC taking unilateral decisions and expecting alliance partners to comply.
The SACP is determined to have its voice heard within the tripartite alliance, it says the agency can no longer take unilateral decisions and expect everyone to fall in line. The inclusion of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Government of National Unity (GNU) was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Mapaila says the GNU is bad for the people of SA and bad for the ANC.
“We're done here. We're contesting 2026 local government (elections). It doesn't matter how many meetings are going to take place really, and I think this matter came out because there was a debate whether we should be flexible in the resolution, people said we have been flexible too much for 22 years and every single flexibility has been abused. And used to take us back. So, we are moving forward, but we welcome the ANC engaging this thing, waking up finally and understanding that they cannot take their allies for granted. They cannot take the unity of the movement for granted. And therefore they cannot also take the people for granted because we are suffering like this consequent to the ANC taking things for granted and being warned about it,” Mapaila said.
Meanwhile, former President Thabo Mbeki, who also attended the Congress, said the SACP had a right to decide on how it wants to proceed.
“They have the right to take that decision as an independent party” said Mbeki.
Mapaila didn't mince his words, saying the party wants the ANC, the Congress of SA Trade Unions and SACP alliance reconfigured so that there are substantive consultations on decisions and not mechanical meetings.
“As we speak the alliance exist because yes, we meet, we discuss and so forth. But critical decisions are taken unilaterally by the ANC. So, you feel that that weakens the alliance. That is why, for instance, the decision taken to work with the DA in the GNU undermines the collective approach of the alliance components. Key components in the alliance did not agree with these things, but the ANC did not care. Because they felt it was good for them and is not good for us and is not good for the people of this country,” he said.
Mapaila also says there are many other options to dealing with SA's economic issues outside of the ANC's neoliberal and pro capital policies.
“The forces that we've chosen to work with are forces that are imposing budget cuts on the state. We've seen, for instance, provincial budgets being cut, and when provincial budgets or national budgets are cut, which is what we call austerity, when the budgets are cut, social services decrease, social discontent increases. You find people have no water, electricity, service delivery becomes a big issue because there's no money to do it. We don't have enough money for doctors and nurses in our communities and then we have long queues in hospitals and that is why we are we have affirmed the support for the introduction of the National Health Insurance, we have problems in our schools and we can’t employ more teachers. That's why these bourgeois forces want to present racially segregated schools because they can afford to take their children there with prohibitive fees for those kind of schools,” said Mapaila.
He added that the Communist Party has now established a national elections team and developed an implementation framework to be used for the selection of candidates as it prepares to take on other parties, including the ANC, in a wall-to-wall local elections contest in 2026.
--ChannelAfrica--
