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The African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) held a bilateral meeting on Monday, 17 March 2025, to strengthen the decades-old relationship between the two principal political formations of our Alliance. The President of the ANC, comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, led the ANC National Officials and technical team, while the General Secretary of the SACP, comrade Solly Mapaila, led the SACP National Office Bearers and technical team.

We held robust yet very constructive discussions on how domestic, African continental and global developments impact the lives of the people of South Africa, especially the working class and poor as the majority. Within this context, we discussed the economic and broader social transformation and development of our country to overcome our nation’s challenges, solve our people’s problems and build shared prosperity, guided by the Freedom Charter. This strategic task requires a united, strong revolutionary movement.

Against this background, we discussed the implications for the Alliance and reviewed the state of the National Democratic Revolution – our shared strategy of the struggle for liberation and emancipation, through transformation and development. Based on both our previous bilateral discussion and our shared analysis of recent developments, we engaged in further reflections on the aftermath of the May 2024 election and the state of the Alliance, focusing on its reconfiguration and renewal to strengthen the national democratic revolutionary front in our country. This strategic task includes building the unity of revolutionary forces and the broader democratic movement.

The foundation of our constructive discussions is that the ANC and the SACP share common strategic objectives defined by the National Democratic Revolution and the need to defend, advance and deepen the revolution towards completing it. Because of this intersection of our strategic objectives, we are interdependent, even though we are also foundationally independent formations, each with its historical mission to accomplish.

The bilateral reaffirmed our unwavering collective commitment to the National Democratic Revolution and the Alliance. We agreed to strengthen the relationship between the ANC and the Communist Party, a relationship forged in over a century of national-revolutionary democratic struggles to achieve liberation and improve the quality of life of all South Africans towards social emancipation.

The meeting agreed to establish a structured process to reassert the imperative of moving the National Democratic Revolution into a second, more radical phase – as part of our strategic objectives to defend, advance and deepen the revolution. To this end, we agreed to set in motion joint Alliance consensus-seeking democratic consultation.

Convening Alliance Political Council Study Sessions on economic policy, including fiscal, monetary, trade and industrial policy, as well as social policy broadly understood, is an immediate task we have proposed the bilateral and Alliance Secretariat should implement. We have agreed that these Alliance Political Council Study Sessions must culminate in the Alliance Summit this year.

The agreement to set in motion joint Alliance consensus-seeking democratic consultation will cover – and thus take forward – the outcomes of our engagements on the reconfiguration and renewal of the Alliance. In addition, there are questions of electoral strategy and tactics for further and ongoing consideration not only by the ANC and the SACP but equally importantly also by the entire Alliance and broader movement.

Given the organisational and political thoroughness with which we want to build and ensure the success of our meeting outcomes on every issue we have discussed – including our exchanges on the national budget, we agreed to prioritise first reporting to our respective structures before we can communicate further details via the media. 

At the national level, these structures include the ANC’s National Working Committee and National Executive Committee, and the SACP’s Political Bureau and Central Committee. This process includes further engagements within the full complement of the Alliance in line with our commitment to set in motion joint Alliance consensus-seeking democratic consultation.

Finally, from our assessment of the unfolding international context, we reaffirmed our shared programme to consolidate unity and strengthen international solidarity to build a better Africa and world. This has become more critical amid the many risks of a resurgent and consolidating right-wing force across the globe, its domestic expression and the risks it poses to global peace and stability, as well as to the social and economic lives of the people. In this regard, the bilateral session also called for the unity of the revolutionary and progressive forces across the world, both in the Global South and North.

In our country, in particular, we are determined to build the widest possible patriotic unity and defend our democratic national sovereignty, thus securing our national independence and fundamental right to self-determination. We will not flinch or give any quarter to bullying. To this end, we will close ranks to defend and implement democratic transformation legislation towards a completely non-racial and non-sexist South Africa. 

This shall include tackling the imbalances and inequalities created by the racist systems of colonial and apartheid oppression. We are determined to build a nation characterised by equality and shared prosperity in line with the Freedom Charter.

Issued on behalf of the ANC and the SACP by the ANC Secretary-General comrade Fikile Mbalula and SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila.