ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji has vowed that the South African Communist Party (SACP) will not garner any support should it continue with its decision to contest the 2026 local government.
Malatji was speaking during the Peter Mokaba memorial lecture in Khayelitsha on Friday as part of the build-up to the ANC’s January 8 commemoration in Cape Town this weekend.
He said SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila and “his friends” must leave the tripartite alliance and contest the elections alone rather than dragging the communist party with them.
“Solly Mapaila and friends must never think that they can depose the ANC. You can’t be a populist when the ANC is under attack. When the ANC is under attack, we must all unite and close ranks and defend the ANC against the enemy,” he said.
“We are not going to be told that our president of our ANC is a sellout when all of us combined — [labour federation] Cosatu, SACP and [South African National Civic Organisation] Sanco — we are sitting at 40% because we all campaigned together.”
The SACP adopted a resolution last year that it will contest the 2026 local government elections independently of the ANC.
The communist party has accused its alliance partner the ANC of selling out by forming the government of national unity, which consists of 10 parties including the Democratic Alliance (DA).
If the SACP does contest the local government elections, it is still unclear whether it will “donate” the votes it secures to the ANC, as has been the case since 1994.
The ANC has committed to a process of engagement with the SACP and the parties are expected to hold a bi-literal meeting this month to deal with their differences.
Malatji told ANC Youth League members that Mapaila was “never going to leave with the SACP” because it belongs to the mass democratic movement.
He accused Mapaila of wanting to form an alliance with the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, which he said was the reason the ANC did not get more than 50% of the 29 May 2024 elections vote it required to govern outright.
“If he wants to join the MK with Floyd Shivambu, he can leave and leave the SACP as it is,” Malatji said.
“We are not going to allow populists. When we were at 63%, they were happy with us, when we were at 57%, they were happy with us and when we are under siege, they leave us and go and join the counter-revolution at the expense of our people.”
Malatji said there was a tendency by people in the movement to believe that because members sing or clap for them in meetings, the organisation belonged to them
” There’s no SACP that belongs to Solly. If he wants to see, he must leave and contest the elections. He will see that it’s only going to be him, Floyd Shivambu and his children.”
“He can run around in Thokoza where he comes from, and no one will greet Solly Mapaila because no one knows him.”
Malatji also took a swipe at ANC former president Jacob Zuma, saying he is a counter-revolutionary and the real enemy of the country.
“When you go home, you must tell your family that Jacob Zuma is worse than the DA. He is the one that put the ANC at 40% [in the 29 May elections], so that our people are de-positioned. Zuma is the enemy of our people.
“The youth must always remember Zuma as a counter-revolutionary and the man that sold his people for nothing.”
