By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) launched its manifesto for the 2026 Local Government Elections at Tshwane University of Technology in Soshanguve, North of Pretoria.
The upcoming elections will mark the first time in the democratic era that the SACP contests elections independently of its alliance partner, the African National Congress (ANC).
The SACP first resolved to explore electoral independence at its 2017 congress.
The party has increasingly argued for a broader left-wing platform, independent of the ANC, that includes trade unions, NGOs and research bodies.
In its last congress, the party adopted a resolution to advocate for policies such as a universal basic income grant, public employment programmes, and resistance to austerity.
The SACP decision came despite multiple pleas by the ANC for its support and warnings that a refusal could weaken the alliance and fragment its support base ahead of the 2026 polls.
SACP secretary general Solly Mapaila said, its candidate selection process is already at an advanced stage, drawing candidates from its own ranks as well as traditional leaders, church groups and community organisations.
He said the party was recommitting itself to the “working-class struggle”.
“Our core struggle is the struggle to end all forms of human exploitation, as well as oppression, inequality, and the struggle to transfer wealth — both economic and social power — to the people, so that they can create a prosperous, democratic, non-racial as well as socialist South Africa,” he said.
The party was also celebrating 105 years of “unbroken struggle for people’s power, for socialism, and for national liberation”, Mapaila said.
“The 2026 local government elections will be a crucial terrain of class struggle,” Mapaila said, adding that the elections would not be a routine bureaucratic exercise but a contest over control of municipalities and the direction of local governance in the interests of the working class.
He said the party understood that some members occupied senior positions in the ANC and in government and would, at times, be required to act in line with those roles.
Mapaila said the SACP accepted that such members might choose to support the ANC in certain decisions and would not be sanctioned for doing so.
The SACP contested elections independently for the first time in Metsimaholo, Free State, it won three seats in the municipal council.
The ANC went from 19 to 16 seats while the DA lost one seat, down to 11, giving the SACP a crucial place in the coalition negotiations that determined who lead the municipality.
In Limpopo, the SACP only won 1% in by-election, and did not register excitement among voters in Fetakgomo Tubatse either. The party only obtained 1%, 119 votes behind the third-placed Defenders of the People (DOP), with ANC second and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) retaining the ward.