Pretoria - The ANC in Limpopo has extended an olive branch to the SACP as cracks start to appear in the tripartite alliance.
Last week the ANC suffered a big blow at the14th Cosatu national congress in Midrand, Gauteng, following the trade union’s assertion that it would endorse the SACP in the 2024 general elections.
Also, ANC chairperson and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe who was meant to give a message of support on behalf of the party, was jeered and booed off stage.
Closing the congress on Thursday, re-elected Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said the federation wanted the voice of the SACP to be “heard loud and clear”.
She said it would campaign with the SACP in accordance with its election modalities.
Despite endorsing the SACP, Losi said they were demanding a reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance partners.
“This congress has reaffirmed its support for the SACP, the vanguard party, and the need for it to contest elections as part of the advancement of the national democratic revolution,” Losi added.
Sources at the congress said a total of 543 delegates voted in favour of dumping the ANC in support of the SACP which is also an alliance partner, while 194 voted against it.
SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila fired the first salvo in his message of support on the first day, endorsing the delegates’ support for the SACP.
However, addressing the SACP politburo meeting in Polokwane last week ahead of the Red October launch in Tzaneen and addressed by Mapaila on Sunday, new ANC Limpopo secretary Rueben Madadzhe said for the ANC to continue ruling, it needed the tripartite alliance to remain intact. “We need a united alliance that will rise and provide leadership before the people, look for new alternatives and (go) looking for leaders.
Madadzhe vowed that the provincial working committee would work hard on fixing the cracks in the alliance. “We want to assert that we are fully awake to the fact that both the ANC and the SACP are unitary organisation guided by democratic centralism.
“The ANC in Limpopo will work side by side with the SACP and all alliance partners to make the province a better place by centring service delivery, and active leadership that holds our deployees at all levels accountable.”
Madadzhe said that with the party’s elective conference looming it was now more important than ever for the alliance to stick together.
“This is a conference year for the ANC and we are within our rights to discuss the leadership we need.
“More importantly should be the kind of policy direction the ANC is going to take post-2022 conference.
“The kind of resolutions we take will determine whether the ANC continues to live or not.
“The voice of the SACP will be very important for the battles ahead.”
Efforts to reach SACP spokesperson Charlie Nkadimeng in the province were unsuccessful.
Pretoria News