WHEN South Africans head to the polls later this year, they will be faced with a ballot offering myriad choices — from the governing African National Congress (ANC) to the opposition Democratic Alliance and its assorted new bedfellows, and new formations like RISE Mzansi and the Jacob Zuma-backed Umkhonto we Sizwe party.

One major political force, however, will remain off the ballot. The South African Communist Party (SACP) has been part of the ruling Tripartite Alliance since the dawn of democracy. Leading SACP members have been part of every cabinet since the end of apartheid in 1994, but they enter parliament — and government — as members of the ANC.

The SACP will nonetheless play a prominent part in the election campaign. They will mobilise for a seventh ANC majority, in an election many predict could see the governing party dip below 50 per cent for the first time since it was unbanned.