At its 2007 Congress, the SACP had resolved to contest elections ‘in the context of a reconfigured Alliance’ and mandated the Central Committee (CC) to examine how this would be done. This decision was not seriously pursued, and the subsequent 2012 Congress ‘was not satisfied that the mandate for the CC Commission had been adequately fulfilled’. The matter was taken further in 2017 when the Congress resolved that the SACP ‘must actively contest elections’, within or outside ‘the umbrella of a re-configured Alliance’.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has ultimately decided to operationalise its desire to contest elections as a separate entity. ‘Ultimately’ because the party has been inching towards this decision for years now. The matter was broached in the 2000s, with a reluctant Party leadership – under pressure from the membership – kicking the can shorter and shorter distances down the road.
