ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the party will boycott the SACP’s upcoming “Conference of the Left”,
Image: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers
The conflict between the ANC and the SACP has intensified after ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula confirmed the party would not attend the SACP’s so-called “Conference of the Left” this weekend.
The SACP is preparing for its conference, scheduled to run from May 29 over three days.
Mbalula said the ANC had received a formal invitation and had been offered a brief speaking slot to deliver a message of support.
However, he said they decided not to participate in the conference.
“On the so-called Conference of the Left, ideologically we do not think it is a forum of the left. We think it is merely a project of people coming together to discuss various issues in general,” he said.
“Beyond that, this Conference of the Left, outside the ANC and the alliance, is not left in our view. If you look at the composition of those attending, we do not believe it constitutes the left.”
He described the gathering as a civil society platform made up of groups willing to engage one another, but questioned its ideological character.
“We are not going to attend that conference. We have received the invitation and we will write to the Communist Party to inform them,” Mbalula said.
He also dismissed the significance of the invitation, saying the ANC had only been allocated a five-minute speaking slot.
“It is not a platform we believe represents the real left of our country,” he said.
Mbalula argued that coalition politics in South Africa had blurred ideological boundaries.
“We have worked with political parties that are not left because of electoral outcomes,” he said.
“Some of these parties were formed by former ANC members, yet we have worked with them in local councils and coalition governments.”
He said those now championing the left conference had previously dismissed ideological arguments when the ANC formed coalitions.
“When Johannesburg and Tshwane were lost by the ANC, we were told not to bring left politics into coalition discussions because there was nothing left about coalition politics,” he said.
Mbalula accused some participants in the conference of seeking to weaken the ANC-led alliance.
“Their strategic objective is to defeat and destroy the alliance,” he said.
“They have failed to destroy the alliance and they will never destroy it.”
According to Mbalula, there was “nothing left” about the current political alignments being formed.
“We are not going to spend our time on it,” he said.
The SACP has sharply criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC leadership over the decision to form the Government of National Unity (GNU) after the 2024 general election.
The party is against the inclusion of the DA and FF Plus in the GNU.
The Tripartite Alliance consists of the ANC, the SACP and Cosatu.
The SACP has long opposed the coalition government at the national level, arguing it does not represent the interests of black people or the working class.
The party has since announced it will contest the upcoming local government elections independently, while insisting it is not leaving the alliance.
The ANC has strongly opposed that decision.
Meanwhile, among those expected to attend the conference are representatives from the MK Party, the EFF, trade unions.
However, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said it would not participate.
“Some of the formations invited to this gathering, including the MK Party, cannot be characterised as left formations,” Saftu said.
“Their politics and conduct stand in direct contradiction to the values of non-racialism, working-class unity, democratic accountability, internationalism and socialist transformation.”
Saftu also criticised the inclusion of chambers of commerce and business organisations in what it described as a supposedly leftist gathering.
“Saftu will not sit at the same table with right-wing forces, champions of neoliberalism, austerity, privatisation, corruption, xenophobia, ethnic chauvinism, patriarchy, misogyny and narrow nationalism in order to craft a programme allegedly aimed at liberating the working class from a crisis created precisely by these forces,” it said in a statement.
simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za
IOL Politics