By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) on Monday expressed disagreement with the South African Communist Party (SACP)’s stance on contesting elections.
At its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Boksburg, the ANC discussed the reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance.
The party resolved that discussions within the alliance should take place to iron out their differences.
Briefing the media on the outcomes of those discussions, ANC general manager Febe Potgieter said it would be unfair for to make voters choose between the ANC and SACP based on policy indifferences.
Monday is the final day of a four-day ANC national executive committee meeting.
She said that the country’s “progressive and transformation project” would fail if the SACP had to contest the polls on its own.
“Our belief is that it would be very wrong for the progressive and transformation project in the country. What you will do, is to request ANC members to choose between ANC and the SACP. That is like saying you must choose between a mother and father.”
Potgieter’s comments come after the SACP’s Solly Mapaila warned the ANC that the party would be contesting both national elections and by-elections should a consensus not be reached.
But Potgieter reaffirmed the ANC’s commitment to the alliance.
“The NEC reaffirmed its commitment to the renewal of ANC, SACP and Cosatu because of the critique that our partners made of the ANC, we acknowledged that and have done so in several of our conferences, as well as the task of renewal. The core values and principles of the alliance, the commitment to a common program of action and all those issues that form part of the program of the alliance.”
ANC NEC member Zuko Godlimpi, who along with Potgieter led the team tasked with finding ways to strengthen the alliance, said there were several concerns the ANC had identified about the current arrangement between the three organisations.
Godlimpi added Cosatu and the SACP had raised concerns over how the ANC drafted its manifesto ahead of elections, with the two demanding to have a say.
“We always view the manifesto as an alliance stance, not an ANC document.”
Without going into detail, he added there were areas of serious policy disagreements, but the three organisations were in the process of trying to iron out those differences.
The ANC will convene an alliance summit in May to discuss burning issues, going into the 2024 general elections.