-
A delegate stands near a banner during the 55th National Conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa December 18, 2022.
The African National Congress (ANC) will hold its much anticipated Special National Executive Committee (NEC) between Saturday and Sunday.
After being postponed several times, the party’s highest decision-making body will discuss the state of local government and the dual membership of ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) members following the SACP’s decision to contest elections independently, among others.
Earlier, the ANC said it would be difficult to relate with the SACP as its alliance partner while competing for the same votes in the 2026 local polls.
Dual membership debate
The two-day ANC NEC meeting starting on Saturday is seen as a make or break gathering for the ANC tripartite alliance.
Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula says the SACP decision to contest elections independently has sparked a serious debate on dual membership.
Mbalula insists that if the SACP goes ahead with its decision, it would be difficult for them to share future election strategy with an organisation that has defined itself as its opponent.
”It is not the question of whether the ANC expels … the resolution itself is bringing into question membership duality of the ANC. It is not the question of threatening people or saying to people because you have dual membership, you must go. It’s a decision that in its implication means that if you stand as a ward councillor in a ward, you stand opposite to the ANC. It brings into question duality. You are a party, and you are contesting the same ward we are contesting. So, who brought about the question of duality in the context of this decision? It is the party! Because we can no longer share the same things we used to do (such as) election strategy and planning together,” says Mbalula.
SACP General Secretary, Solly Mapaila, has dared the ANC to expel communists, insisting that those SACP members are ANC members as well.
”They are ANC members in their own right as much as members of the ANC have decided to join the Communist Party and pursue a further struggle to deepen this transformation. Now, if the ANC takes its own decision to expel our members, it is their own baby. It has been done by Clement Kadali, after we built the trade union movement. He expelled communists. We rebuilt the trade union movement anew in this country. We can’t tell them what to do, but we are committed to the alliance to dual membership and to respect each component of the alliance and the roles that members are playing,” says Mapaila.
A “disastrous” decision
With the SACP seemingly unyielding on its position, Mbalula says their meeting will have to decide on the course of action; insisting that the SACP is the most disastrous ever in the history of the alliance.
”We have reflected, at the theoretical level, what the implication of this monumental disastrous decision of the party are for the alliance and we have said as the ANC, we are against that. But it looks like there is no turning back. Now, the ANC will have to apply itself on the practicalities of how we are going to navigate that space and the marching orders will come in terms of what is going to happen. We have made up our minds about that and we will share that perspective with our membership. In the next coming week, we will share that perspective (as to) why we say that there is no theoretical basis for the Communist Party to stand on its own,” says Mbalula.
With the Special NEC meeting also called to discuss the state of the local government, deliberations will culminate in a roll call meeting on Monday, where the over 6,000 ANC councillors and mayors will account to the NEC for their work since the 2021 local government elections.
