SACP rules out coalition support, seeks unity among left-wing parties
The South African Communist Party (SACP) says its electoral performance was driven by grassroots community work rather than traditional election campaigning.
The party, which has historically supported the African National Congress (ANC) as part of the tripartite alliance, contested the 2026 local government elections independently.
Nationally, the SACP has secured 2.49% of the vote.
Speaking to SABC News at the Results Operations Centre (ROC) on Friday, party General-Secretary Solly Mapaila says the SACP is not supporting any political party in coalition discussions.
He says the party will instead convene a meeting of left-wing formations that contested the elections to discuss a common agenda and possible future collaboration.
“We will convene that meeting as soon as it’s possible with forces of the various left forces that participated in these elections to discuss a common agenda of the left forces. Because the left forces primarily represent the lowest in our communities, the most downtrodden, the poorest of the poor, those that have been neglected by the democratic transition,” he says.
The party has expressed gratitude to voters who supported the party which was contesting elections for the first time.
Mapaila says the party will respect people who voted for them during these elections and has vowed to work with communities in the wards they won.
“The masses always express their own feelings and their own conditions, and that’s why we always respect them. And we are humbled by their expression. We respect them, we want to express our deepest thanks to South Africans, for coming out in their numbers to vote and especially, those who voted for the SACP. We are really humbled by this reflection. We also want to thank our members. This is not a product of capitalist intervention. It’s a product of people’s intervention and self-reliance of our communities and our cadres. Possibly the first entrant in this campaign that wins wards. Many others have won a lot of PR seats in the past, but we have gone in directly to take wards in different communities,” explains Mapaila.
VIDEO| SACP General-Secretary Solly Mapaila has thanked South Africans for casting their votes:
The party says its legal team is dealing with election-related complaints received from party structures across the country. However, the party maintains that the elections were generally successful, orderly and credible.
Mapaila says the party was disappointed by irregularities at some voting stations, particularly those involving the conduct and discretion of certain presiding officers.
He says the party is not overly concerned about the complaints process, as its legal team is handling the technical aspects of the complaints.
“Well, we have got our legal team here led by Advocate Mugwena and some of our comrades, Comrade Nyoko here and others. They are the ones that are dealing with those technical details. There they have received some complaints from our structures. Those have been processed accordingly, through the party-liaising committees and so forth, so our team is participating in that. We are not that deeply concerned about those particular areas because we think that overall, the elections were successful. They went quite orderly and so forth,” he says.
