TMG Digital | 2016-12-16 16:36:19.0
Leaders of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) lead a march calling for the abolition of labour brokers and the implementation of a national health insurance scheme through Durban, South Africa, April 23, 2016. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
Image by: ROGAN WARD / REUTERS
The South African Communist Party has not taken a decision yet on whether to go it alone in the 2019 elections.
The party said its Augmented Central Committee had over the past two days taken further the discussion on the 'SACP and State Power'‚ including the possibility of contesting elections its own‚ as part of the ongoing discussions leading to the party's July 2017 14th Congress at which decisions would be taken.
"The meeting reaffirmed that the SACP seeks to establish democratic working class power over the state and will engage in new ways of doing this that are being raised in the discussion documents being finalised for our 14th National Congress in July 2017.
"It is at this Congress‚ after discussion at branch level‚ that decisions will be taken on the SACP contesting elections as part of our Strategy on State Power‚ which is inextricably linked to and must be buttressed by democratic popular power‚" the party said on Friday.
Among the issues it said would need to be clarified at the 14th National Congress were: - How will SACP taking part in elections on its own advance the national democratic and socialist struggles? - If the SACP takes part in elections on our own‚ would the SACP still be part of the Alliance? - If so‚ how would the Alliance be re-configured? - If the SACP is not part of the ANC-led Alliance‚ who would it ally with? - How would contesting elections relate to the broader popular front the SACP seeks to create?
"The SACP will engage with its Alliance Partners‚ as well as a range of other progressive formations‚ on these and other relevant issues in the lead up to its 14th Congress and beyond it‚" the party added.