Giving the annual Joe Slovo memorial oration, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said that “there must be democratic consensus-seeking consultation on all major legislative policy” and ministerial appointments between the ruling ANC and its alliance partners the SACP and union federation Cosatu.

On the party’s July congress vote for the SACP to stand in elections, he said: “Contesting state power ... is completely different from working against the ANC,” adding that was the key to understanding “the new era for the alliance.”