Is the tripartite alliance crumbling? Malatji dares SACP to contest elections alone

African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji has challenged the South African Communist Party (SACP) to withdraw their deployees in government and contest elections independently.

This comes after a public spat between the SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila and African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula over the formation of the government of national unity (GNU) and the ANC’s working relationship with the Democratic Alliance (DA) in government.

ALSO READ: ‘The ANC is not a branch of the SACP’: Mbalula tells Mapaila to stop attacking his party

Malatji briefed the media on Tuesday about the ANC’s views on the GNU and other developments in the country.

‘They must withdraw’

“They must urgently withdraw all their deployees because you cannot say we are GNU of sellouts when your national chair is there within the GNU, it lacks a bit of consistency,” he said.

ALSO READ: The tripartite alliance will be ‘reconfigured’ – SACP

Malatji posed a challenge to the SACP’s secretary general: “He is very brave. Its either he will agree with the ANC on our GNU work or he will withdraw those that are in the party from the GNU.”

He also dared Mapaila to set up structures and contest elections without the ANC.

“Then later on he must set up structures to contest elections so he stops being under the state of the African National Congress. That is the bravery we want from the SACP,” he said.

South Africans did not give ANC a majority

Malatji denied that the SACP had been treated as a lesser partner of the tripartite alliance.

This follows accusations by the SACP that the ANC had not been completely honest with their alliance partners during the formation of the GNU.

“Let me remind you that the ANC was not given a full mandate by South Africans to govern on its own; that is why we found ourselves under GNU which includes the SACP,” he said.

He said he had also told Mbalula to stop responding to the SACP on social media.

“We have also engaged the secretary-general of the ANC to not respond on social media on critical serious political matters which can be addressed in other platforms,” he said.

The SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had expressed displeasure at the formation of the GNU with the DA.

In separate congresses of both organisations, there had been debates of the SACP contesting elections independently and COSATU un-aligning itself with the ANC.

The relationship between the alliance partners was based on principles of economic emancipation for the poor and the promotion of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).