Paul Mashatile, the Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC), will deliver a message of support from his party to the South African Communist Party (SACP) at its fifth Special National Congress, which begins today in Boksburg, located in eastern Johannesburg. The relationship between the two parties has been strained recently. The agenda for the four-day congress includes a resolution from the SACP Central Committee for the party to participate independently in the 2026 local elections.
This stems from what the communist party says is the ANC’s failure to realise the reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance and its inclusion of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in its government of national unity.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula says, “We are going to the SACP congress. Deputy President Mashatile will lead our delegation. He will also deliver our message to the SACP congress as we have been invited to deliver the message of support, we will do so.”
“We have a delegation, it will go and then listen to what the conference is saying and post the conference we have a bilateral with the SACP in January.”
Mbalula adds, “ Should they actually take a decision like they have already informed us that they want to stand alone, we are going to engage that decision in terms of its implications for the alliance, but we have cautioned against that because it is going to have far-reaching implications for the alliance going forward.”
