Fikile Mbalula says the ANC faces an existential crisis after receiving only 40% of the vote, but insists the tripartite alliance remains strong and vital for advancing the National Democratic Revolution.
Image: Fikile Mbalula / X
African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the tripartite alliance will not perish despite the party’s poor performance in the recent elections, which saw the ANC receiving only 40% of the vote, its lowest in democratic history.
Addressing the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) National Congress in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, Mbalula called the outcome an existential crisis for the ANC, one that demands urgent action to renew the party or face further decline.
“The ANC recognises this as an existential crisis, and we must either renew or perish. We, therefore, need to act with utmost urgency, determination, and courage in making the renewal of the ANC more visible and irreversible,” Mbalula said.
He emphasised that the renewal process cannot be achieved alone but requires working closely with the ANC’s alliance partners, particularly the South African Communist Party (SACP) and COSATU, which form the core of the tripartite alliance.
While acknowledging the severity of the situation, Mbalula stressed that the alliance remains unbreakable and that its unity is vital for advancing the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).
The ANC, he argued, will not oppose the Communist Party’s objective of advancing socialism. Instead, Mbalula highlighted the need for collaboration, even following ideological differences within the alliance.
This comes after the SACP announced its decision to contest the local government elections independently.
“Communists in the ANC must remain in the party,” Mbalula said. “You are a communist party member, you are in the ANC, and you joined the ANC in your own name and right. The ANC has always been a contested terrain.
''Communists cannot afford to leave the ANC. If you leave, you leave it to nationalists and capitalists. Do as you wish with the ANC, and then you become pure. That has never been the agenda.”
Mbalula also reflected on the historical dynamics of the ANC and the Communist Party co-existing within the same political project.
Despite the Communist Party not being a mass movement on its own, he recognised the significant role it plays in shaping ANC policies and ideologies.
The ANC, he said, has always been a space of ideological contestation, where communists have influenced the party’s manifestos and political direction, even if their numbers were never as large as those of other factions.
''To us, participation of communists in the ANC has never been about numbers. That’s why when we go to a by-election, the Communist Party gets these lower numbers.
''If the ANC wins a by-election, we are not shocked, because the Communist Party has never been a mass movement to bring big numbers. It brought ideology to the African National Congress and influenced it.
''It can only be weakened, but it’s never going to die,'' Mbalula said.
He further discussed the ongoing “reconfiguration” within the alliance, acknowledging that there are challenges in better accommodating communists.
However, Mbalula made it clear that the decision to reconfigure had already been implemented, and now the focus must shift to ensuring unity and collaboration for the sake of the broader movement.
In addressing the issue of leftist politics, Mbalula did not hold back: "And there is nothing in terms of ideology that makes them left except being the descendants of our liberation movement," he said.
“And so when we define even left, we must be clear. The only thing that is left in left is the African National Congress, the Communist Party, and COSATU. That's what is left of left.”
He suggested that some who claim to be left-wing are not truly committed to the ideals of socialism and liberation, and that the ANC, along with its Communist and trade union partners, represents the authentic "left" in South Africa.
He pointed out that ANC policies, particularly those grounded in socialism, remain intact even when opposition parties, such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), implement them in government.
Reflecting on the ANC’s response to its electoral setback, Mbalula acknowledged that the party had considered various options when confronted with the 40% result.
“When we found ourselves at 40%, we had options. And when we debated in the working committee the other day, the decision of the Communist Party, one ANC theoretician and ideologue said to me, SG, one day when history is revisited, and we interrogate this moment we’re in, it must never be said that ANC did not consider options when we dealt with the Communist Party,” Mbalula added.
“The revolution is not waiting. It must be intensified,” he said. “The point is that we should always remind ourselves, when we found ourselves at 40%, we had options. And we considered all options.”
IOL Politics