What is the SACP’s real game plan?

Detailed summary

Those who believe the South African Communist Party is the best-suited organisation to create a proper leftist movement are owed an explanation as to why the party would now be…

Those who believe the South African Communist Party is the best-suited organisation to create a proper leftist movement are owed an explanation as to why the party would now be working with people it has previously scorned in this way.

The SACP’s formal entry as a standalone party was one of the most significant moments of this election. It won 2.38% of the vote. What now?

A great weakness of our current politics is the lack of a disciplined movement of the left, a party that believes in a large role for the government in our economy and society. It is part of a change in global democracies away from a politics based on an economic left-right axis, which has led to the most unequal country in the world not possessing a strong leftist movement.

This is why the SACP is important – it is the one party that explicitly believes in this ideology.

Much has been said in the past few days about its performance in these elections. On the face of it, to win 271 seats in councils and 2.38% of the vote is impressive.

It shows the party is able to organise and campaign. And that it is able to have candidates who are popular in their wards and councils. It is no joke to campaign – it requires time, effort and resources.

However, when assessing the SACP’s performance it is important to ask: compared with what? It was the party’s first election across the country (in 2016 it contested local elections in Metsimaholo in the Free State).

While it won 2.38% of the vote, in its first election in 2024 Rise Mzansi won 0.42%, while Build One South Africa won 0.41%.

In the 2021 elections, ActionSA, also making its debut in a local election, won 2.34%. This probably puts it roughly on a par.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Maverick. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.