South Africa: 'Like Choosing Between Mum and Dad' - ANC and SACP to Stay in Toxic Relationship

25 April 2023
Scrolla (Johannesburg)
By Zukile Majova

The politically parasitic relationship between the SACP and the ANC continues despite the communists' earlier threats to end the rocky relationship.

A four-day meeting of the ANC national executive committee (NEC) got the communists back into the ANC broad church, saying a divorce between the two parties on the eve of the 2024 elections would be messy.

ANC executive member Febe Potgieter told the media that the 87-member NEC debated the concerns of the SACP and decided the entanglement of these bedfellows should continue.

"Our view is that it would be very wrong for the progressive and transformative agenda in the country because that would mean requesting ANC members to choose between the ANC and the SACP.

"We have a very deeply embedded membership, or dual membership and dual leadership," said Potgieter.

She said some SACP leaders represent the ANC in municipalities, in community structures, in wards and in provincial government. In other words, it would be a very messy divorce.

"It would be like choosing between your mother and your father when they go through tough times."

It's nothing new. On the eve of every election, the SACP central executive committee meets and reviews its position in the ruling tripartite alliance with the ANC and Cosatu.

Too often, it blackmails the ANC leadership and demands inclusion on the ANC list of MPs and some positions in the ever-ballooning cabinet.

It is lucrative positions, top salaries, and other perks and influence that the SACP is demanding from the ANC in all three spheres of government.

Without a single vote, the SACP was bold enough in February to meet President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the retention of its chairperson, Blade Nzimande, and other ministers with SACP backgrounds in Ramaphosa's cabinet.

In recent years, ANC presidents have submitted to pressure to include members of the SACP executive in posts in local government, provincial government and national government.

The taxpayer is paying the salaries of these SACP members who are in government on ANC tickets:

  • SACP first deputy secretary Mandala Masuku - deputy minister for economic development (2014-2019)
  • SACP second deputy president David Masondo - Deputy Minister of Finance
  • SACP chairperson Blade Nzimande - Minister of Higher Education, Training, Science and Technology
  • SACP deputy national chairperson Thulas Nxesi - Minister of Employment and Labour
  • SACP national treasurer Joye Moloi-Moropa - former MP (ANC ticket)
  • Other prominent SACP executive members in the government include Gwede Mantashe (Minister Minerals and Energy), Bhuti Manamela (Deputy Minister Higher Education), Sdumo Dlamini (MP), Fikile Majola (Deputy Minister Trade and Industry), Andries Nel (Deputy Minister Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs), Stan Mathabatha (Limpopo Premier), Lechesa Tsenoli (Deputy Speaker National Assembly).

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