Thursday 13 July 2017 18:15
Amos Phago
The SACP Elective Congress is underway in Boksburg. (SABC)
The South African Communist Party's (SACP) 14th National Congress has begun discussing proposals on strengthening the party, with the status of the tripartite alliance featuring high on the agenda. The alliance has been under severe strain following public spats over President Jacob Zuma's continued stay in office.
Both the SACP and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) want President Zuma to step down as head of state. This is in the wake of controversy surrounding his alleged connections with the Gupta family.
Heightened tensions in the tripartite alliance have fueled calls from some within the SACP that the party should consider contesting elections independently.
While no decision has been made thus far about contesting state power, SACP leadership seems to be discouraging the idea.
On Wednesday, newly-elected first Deputy General Secretary Solly Mapaila called on the SACP to support the ANC in trying to resolve current challenges.
Outgoing first Deputy General Secretary Jeremy Cronin also echoed similar sentiments saying not all has been lost since 2007.
"Whatever the illusions and mistakes we made in Polokwane and the run-up to Polokwane, we want to argue that there were significant advances on the
strategic agenda that the party was trying to set. We were not just taken for a ride. We might have been betrayed later on but we are not playing solo comrades. We are engaged in a struggle inside and outside our organization, within the alliance and broader society. So, there will always be push backs because there are people who do not like the agenda that we are driving."
"We are electing a new central committee from this congress"
Cronin has also alluded to changing political landscape which has been a sudden rise of opposition parties.
"We also need to ask questions in these changing circumstances about who else is mobilising, because we have a new reality which is the EFF which has shown ability to mobilise quiet significantly. We should not underrate them. And also what is interesting and challenging is, the DA is also showing ability to mobilise communities, to mobilise in the streets and it's not only just whites... and there was student struggles and so forth, and ongoing township service delivery protests... Where are we as an alliance in these spaces? Have we created space for others to operate?"
Meanwhile, the Communist party also seeks ways to ensure that it renews itself by, amongst others, locating itself within community struggles and ensure that its membership is of high moral standing.
Mapaila says the party will institutionalise political education within its ranks.
"We are electing a new central committee from this congress. This committee must itself undergo induction. Even if you retained the officials, for instance, you must not say he is a General Secretary, therefore he knows. You must go and get party cadres, scholars of different expertise to come and read the constitution of the party, its principles and talk to leadership about what is expected of them."
Commissions are expected to continue with deliberation until Friday afternoon.