By Nothando Mkhize
South Africa’s local government elections will take place during a time that sees the African National Congress (ANC) in a unity government with smaller parties at national level which suggests loss of support for what was known as Africa’s biggest liberation movement for a very long time.
However, unity is new for the ANC as infighting has seen disunity even inside the structures of the organisation.
Ahead of next year’s vote, the South African Communist Party (SACP) has shared its plans to contest the elections independently and not support the African National Congress (SACP) as has been the norm since the start of South Africa’s democracy in 1994, the ANC has been trying to stop them but has repeatedly failed and has now, essentially, conceded defeat. It is the first big test of the tripartite alliance that includes the ANC, SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
“The atmosphere is that one of anticipation as the communist party is putting together a program that is looking at various strategies on how to implement the decision of going directly in the elections on its own, there’s lots of enthusiasm in the party,” spokesperson of SACP Mbulelo Mandlana said.
When South Africa heads to the polls for the local government elections in 2026, the country would have entered its 32nd year into democracy.
A decades-long history of breakaways.
At the start of South Africa’s Democracy, there was a unity government that embraced apartheid leaders and parties that were on opposing ends during apartheid. The ANC absorbed homeland leader, Bantu Holomisa.
- Holomisa was to form a breakaway party called United Democratic Movement (UDM) with Sifiso Nkabinde who was a popular ANC politician in KwaZulu-Natal. Even after the 1990s, breakaway parties continued to emerge from the ANC.
- The Congress of the People (COPE) was formed after the ousting of Thabo Mbeki as state president.
- The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) formed after youth members that include Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu had been expelled by the ANC under Jacob Zuma as president.
- More recently, the Umkhonto Wesizwe Party (MKP) was formed by former president, Jacob Zuma.
An ally moving away.
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu posits the relationship between the ANC and the SACP as one that has been declining over the years. “There have been many instances whereby the SACP says they would go at it alone without the ANC and then at the eleventh hour it would change saying we have resolved our differences, or we are giving the ANC the benefit of the doubt,” Mngomezulu said.
Mngomezulu suggests that the SACP made its firm decision to sunder from the ANC in December 2024, however Mandlana is adamant the relationship remains and maintains that that the parties are “two different organisations”.
“The Communist Party is not the ANC. The ANC is not the Communist Party,” Mandlana said.
The close relations between the two date back to their time in exile during the fight for South Africa’s liberation. “It occurred in the progression of the South African struggle against apartheid that it became necessary and opportune for the Communist Party and the ANC to work together in order to pursue the struggle so it is not inherent that what the ANC does the Communist Party will need to do it in the same way but if there was not this divergence of views then there would not be a difference in the organisations.”
Doom for those splinters
In their research on factionalism and new party formation, University of the Witwatersrand senior lecturer Ivor Sarakinsky and Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy (EISA) Manager Ebrahim Fakir agree that ‘parties that come into being premised on a split from the parent tend to experience initial success’. Over time, however, they tend to fade away or merge with other small parties to stay within the political landscape.
A falling giant
Mngomezulu says the decline of ANC’s support base means that their partners risk sinking with them. “The decline of the ANC is giving the SACP more energy to want to go it alone because you will remember in 2019 it was for the very first time the ANC obtained less than 60%, which was something unprecedented.
In the 2021 local government elections, the general support for the ANC nationally amounted to around 45% and in the general election in 2024, the ANC got 40.18%.
In an opinion piece titled Decoding the SACP’s independence: the historical context for its 2026 election strategy, Jeff Rudin breaks down eloquently how the ANC-SACP friendship has soured due to non-consultations during when coalition government processes.
Differences between ANC & SACP
Mandlana stressed that citizens should not dare confuse the two organisations as one.
“For example, the ANC when it thinks about national liberation, it does not think that national liberation includes removing the system of capitalism in order for liberation to be meaningful, but the Communist Party believes that national liberation includes removing the political power and authority of the minority over the majority and creating development,” he said.
The SACP cladding their signature red regalia in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday the 3rd of August 2025, celebrated its 104th anniversary. Speaking during his keynote address in KwaDlangezwa in Zululand, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila seized the moment to criticize at their once-beloved comrades in the ANC on how they are running government.
“We are tired of attending meaningless meetings with the ANC. The ANC is arrogant to us,” said Mapaila.
When there were conversations about the GNU, there was an initial contact between the ANC and SACP but before those contacts and discussions about a way forward after the elections, before there was a final conclusion on that – The SACP was shocked to find out on TV that a decision has been made – that a GNU would be formed with the DA and others. Now that means all the engagements before were of no consequence, they were not substantive. That tells you there was no honesty,” explains Mandlana.
Just three days after the Communist Party’s celebrations, the ANC holds a media briefing led by its secretary Fikile Mbalula where he made an admission that the party has reached a point where it can no longer coax the SACP into staying. It was rather unexpected to hear Mbalula admit that the SACP’s independence will probably split the members of the alliance.
Mngomezulu surprisingly shared the same sentiments as Mbalula on the split.
“Because of the decline in support for the ANC which has been consistent in successive elections, it means that there are many people both within the ANC and outside the ANC who are not happy about how the party is being run currently. Factional politics is killing the alliance not just the ANC as a party, so now with the SACP going about it alone obviously there are still members of the ANC who might end up voting for the SACP like it happened with the MK Party,” Mngomezulu explained.
Concerns on election strategy
SACP spokesperson Mbulelo Mandlana chuckled when speaking about the party’s campaign strategy saying it’s still early days.
“You want the Communist Party to start speaking election strategy prematurely, that would be unfair,” Mandlana said.
“Whenever the manifesto comes up, you can bet your last dollar that the Communist Party will put forward a socialist-oriented manifesto,” he added.
Voter Sphelele Zungu (32) expressed concerns on how the SACP plans to differ from the ANC come local elections.
“I can’t help but ask the question, will voters be able to differentiate between the two? What’s the difference if I continue voting for the ANC or if I now change my vote and go for the SACP,” she asks.
Another voter Mlando Sikhosana (35) believes the ANC working with the Democratic Alliance (DA) is what landed them in this position.
“This whole experience has proven to the country that the ANC has lost power and if SACP does contest and receive support from the likes of COSATU – the ANC is likely to be in a darker state than it is. The existences of the DA in the GNU has given SACP the ability to stand firm in its plan to part ways with the ANC, as they don’t align with what the DA stands for.”
The GNU the last straw?
After the ANC’s failure to secure an outright majority in the 2024 national elections resulting in the formation of a coalition government. The government of national unity has been in place for more than a year, binding ten political parties under one roof, one of them being the biggest opposition, the DA.
For Mandlana, this arrangement was a bitter pill to swallow adding that the DA can never represent the poor and the classless so they cannot support a GNU with a party riddled with a dark history of apartheid.
“It is not that we refused the concept of the GNU, we just don’t like the concept of the GNU with a right-wing party like the Democratic Alliance. The DA is a natural enemy of the program that the Communist Party and the ANC, COSATU and SANCO share,” said Mandlana.
Professor Mngomezulu weighs in on this ever-so-tricky indecisiveness of the SACP and their stance of the Democratic Alliance.
“Both the SACP and COSATU have been arguing that they are part of the alliance but when important decisions are taken, they are left out, so this has been simmering for a very long time.”
He has further characterised it as ONE BIG mistake.
“The ANC first toyed with the idea of having a grand coalition with the DA, that was one big mistake. Then it made a claim that it had discussed with alliance partners, which was not the case. Then the SACP and COSATU went out in public to say they do not approve of that kind of arrangement we were not consulted about this,” Mngomezulu said.
Readiness for the polls
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) confirmed that preparations for local government elections 2026/27 are well underway. Early this year the IEC had issued a notice to 192 political parties to have them cancel their registration, including the SACP, but they remained resolute that the struggle continues.
Local government expert Joe Mavuso advises residents to choose their leaders carefully, not only by their party but their work of delivering services to the people.
“Sometimes leaders undermine the effectiveness and legitimacy of local governance, local government is closest sphere to the people,” Mavuso said.
