THE South African Communist Party demanded a say in government policy yesterday after the election of African National Congress president Cyril Ramaphosa.

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.”

Mr Nzimande also hit out at Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi over “what appears to be the genocide and displacement of the Rohingya people.”

“We stood by her side when she was under arrest by the military junta,” he said. “Recent events in Myanmar are not part of the ideals that we supported.”