The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes the statements reportedly made by the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) to the ANC’s National General Council (NGC) as part of a report presented to the NGC. Supposedly, these statements claim that the National Executive Committee of the ANC has rejected dual membership as a standing operational mechanism to conduct the political programme of the alliance between the ANC, the SACP, COSATU and SANCO.

As the SACP, we acknowledge that the NGC is currently in session and that its final outcomes, including on the Strategy and Tactics, will be announced at the conclusion of the NGC, just as we acknowledge the right of the ANC to take any decisions it deems appropriate for itself as an organisation. However, it is imperative that a clarification be provided immediately on the issue of dual membership and to that end this statement is a preliminary clarification exercise of the SACP to respond to this evolving situation as it relates to assertions relating to dual membership.

The question of the essential meaning of the “rejection of dual membership” arises and requires a prompt response. The ANC must respond to several key questions as it constructs a political position on dual membership at this critical juncture. The manner in which the ANC addresses these key questions will determine the substance of the political strategy of the Alliance at present and indeed going into the future.

For the SACP, the current moment extends beyond the upcoming local government elections. It encompasses the character and sustainability of the shared revolutionary project as we understand it. Does the purported rejection of dual membership preclude ANC members from becoming members of the SACP and vice versa? Does rejection of dual membership imply a looming systematic organisational purging of communists who hold membership of the ANC? Does rejection entail the systematic punitive political actions by the ANC towards those who serve as deployees in government and elsewhere, who happen to lead the SACP, under the erroneous notion that the ANC has the sole right to claim the leadership of those deployed? Does the abandonment of dual membership prohibit the participation of ANC members in the SACP or create conditions for this reality?

These are some of the strategic questions that are essential to comprehend the posture that the ANC is now reportedly constructing. An alliance as strategic and historic as that of the ANC and SACP should be viewed with due recognition of its impact on South Africa’s history and not with a periodic perspective limited by an impending election season. The Alliance is based on a common political programme of national transformation that is founded on a vision of national liberation that has specific objectives.

The creation of a non-racial society, the ending of women’s oppression, the ending of exploitation of the working classes and fighting against imperialism are our common goals that are at the foundation of the Alliance. The organisational mechanism of dual membership recognises that the struggle to attain these objectives is a singular struggle that however takes place in various terrains of struggle and yet requires collaborative efforts to attain victory, which is the reason why there are communists in the national liberation struggle and nationalists in the struggle for socialism as well as trade unionists in both political organisations. This framework does not downplay the individual identity of the organisations involved. On the contrary, it sets a framework for the strategic nature of Alliance relations.

The concept therefore of dual membership recognises this reality, and any act to undermine it sets a stage for fundamental changing of the political framework that has historically held the national transformation project together and indeed defined the democratic political system as we know it.

The SACP calls for all revolutionaries in every part of our country, inside and outside the NGC, to protect the progressive movement and its values, including its important traditions as well as the organisational operational mechanism of dual membership between the ANC and the SACP. The dual membership operational mechanism of the Alliance has guaranteed the ANC its mass base and its character as a disciplined force of the left and located the SACP as its ideological pre-eminence and radicalising impact in the political and ideological formation of our revolution while uniting the working-class movement and radicalising its economic struggle. To protect these values is key to progress and prevention of the systemic ransacking of the people’s camp. The SACP anticipates a positive outcome of the NGC in this regard.

Issued by South African Communist Party