DEEMING the ANC’s electoral strategies as beyond the pale, the South African Communist Party has committed itself to a new strategy.

The Tripartite Alliance, born out of the struggle for national liberation which saw the alliance members fight side by side to end apartheid, dates back to the 1920s. The alliance consists of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the African National Congress (ANC) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), its unity in the struggle persisting for decades.

Such ideological convergences developed as the foundation for electoral synergy. Its configuration since 1994 has allowed the ANC to run in elections uncontested by the SACP and Cosatu, though dual members have been permitted to sit in government as ANC representatives. 

However, in 2026, an electoral first: the SACP will be running in its own name.

The alliance

The alliance’s overarching pursuit for the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) — the shared commitment for South Africa achieving socialism — has been the binding agent of the alliance members and the SACP intends for this unified struggle to persist.

Robust commitment to the NDR allowed “the national democratic phase” to be the immediate priority for the alliance, stabilising and unifying the country after apartheid had been dismantled.

Ayanda Zulu, Young Communist League of South Africa Moses Mabhida provincial secretary, notes: “In the first phase of our NDR, the ANC-led government has done great work in particular with access to water, electricity, housing, health and education. However, the ANC has failed to transform the economy into the hands of the working class. The neoliberal policies are now reversing all the gains. The budget cuts impact on health, education and the provision of basic services.”

It is now perhaps clear the struggle has shifted, that the contradictions between the SACP and the ANC’s policies have grown. The ANC’s broad political composition had long cast uncertainty over the alliance. As noted by former SACP general secretary Joe Slovo in 1988: “The alliance of the working class with forces which reject its long-term socialist aspirations is never unproblematic and without tension.”

2024 elections

Last year, the ANC formed a coalition government with the right-wing Democratic Alliance (DA) creating what has been coined the government of national unity. With clear ideological distinctions, the coalition has been unproductive, seeing regular impasses and parliamentary skirmishes.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of the ANC announced in May 2025 the “national dialogue” initiative, in an attempt to address the most acute issues facing South Africa, encouraging cross-party unity. Proven to be futile little over a month later, the DA announced it would cease its participation in the initiative, DA party leader John Steenhuisen deeming the concept a “waste of time and money.”

The DA has been characterised by Ayanda as a “class enemy and the agent of the imperialist forces in South Africa. They are our former oppressors and colonisers. They represent the rich and white privilege. They are against redress of the economic structure, workers’ rights and access to basic services.”

It is clear the shared path of the alliance to the ballot box has found itself at a junction. The decision of the ANC to form a coalition government with the DA proved too much to stomach for the SACP and their departure from electoral unity has ensued.

Ayanda explains: “Since 2007, the South African Communist Party has been discussing the possibility of contesting elections on its own. This is based on the government’s neoliberal policies and its austerity programme having a major impact on unemployment, poverty and inequality. The recent inclusion of the Democratic Alliance [in government], the party that champions capitalist interests, has made things worse.”

The South African conditions

The ANC’s lax ideological approach in incorporating the DA into government is amid the nation facing a myriad of issues, not least the leader of the free world accusing the country of actioning a white genocide, stoking up division and international condemnation on fallacious pretences.

The crux of the Trump administration’s fixation has been the Expropriation Act, something the SACP was instrumental in devising. The Act allows for “just and equitable” compensation when private land is seized by the state for public use. Ironically, a similar provision is provided for in the fifth amendment of the US constitution, which allows the state seizure of land on public interest grounds so long as “just compensation” is provided.

The performative spectacle of just under 60 Afrikaners boarding a chartered flight from Johannesburg to the United States after having their asylum applications heard from within South Africa stands in stark contrast to the quintessential scenes of people embarking upon treacherous journeys to flee persecution in their home countries. It is a story of two vastly differing tales of inequality.

The ANC’s neoliberal policies and mounting corruption scandals have seen South African unemployment levels stagnate at over 30 per cent, while youth unemployment — meaning those aged between 15 and 24 years old — stands at over 60 per cent. The lack of opportunity has corresponded to a disenchantment with electoral politics, the last elections seeing voter turnout at just over 58 per cent, the lowest figure since universal suffrage was achieved in South Africa in 1994.

The future

On the relationship between Cosatu and SACP in the wake of the alliance’s effective dissolution, Ayanda outlines: “Major unions in Cosatu like NUM [miners], NEHAWU [education, health] and POPCRU [police and prisons] have already endorsed the decision. The upcoming Cosatu central committee meeting in September is expected to finalise the matter. The party is the vanguard of the working class, which includes the organised workers under Cosatu.”

Raising the interesting matter of whether ANC- or SACP-affiliated unions will emerge, it is irrespectively clear that the SACP, a party with over 200,000 members, has broad support for its decision in the labour movement, a damning indictment for the ANC.

For the first time in the country’s history, South Africans will have the option of voting communist in the 2026 local elections, perhaps offering a lifeline for the country in furthering their struggle for socialism.

In Britain, as progressives abandon Labour in droves, untethering from the idea that the once trade union-backed party represents the broader labour movement, there is perhaps much to be learnt in the British context from our comrades in South Africa.