SACP Secretariat, together with other National Office Bearers, met to consider the outcomes of our May 2024 elections and have convened the Political Bureau

4 June 2024

The South African Communist Party (SACP) Central Committee Secretariat, together with the entire complement of the Party National Office Bearers, met on Monday, 4 June 2024. This was the first meeting of the SACP’s day-to-day leadership collective, with the Secretariat as the core, following the announcement by the Independent Electoral Commission on Sunday evening, 2 June 2024, of our May 2024 provincial and national government election results. The commission declared the elections as free and fair, despite the challenges that it experienced. The purpose of the meeting was to begin a process within the SACP to chart the way forward, given the results at hand, with a focus on but not only the immediate question of coalition arrangements.

Foremost, the SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila, expressing the collective appreciation of the meeting, wishes to take this opportunity to thank all South Africans who exercised their democratic right to vote and to express the Party’s sincere gratitude to all the people, with the working class being the majority, who voted for our ally, the African National Congress (ANC). The SACP campaigned for the ANC across the length and breadth of our country within the framework of our ANC-led Alliance, its collective achievements, reconfiguration engagements and jointly consulted manifesto.

The votes received by the ANC maintain it as the largest party by electoral support in our country and reaffirm its outright majority in five provinces: Limpopo with 73.3 per cent, Eastern Cape with 62.16 per cent, North West with 57.73 per cent, Free State with 51.87 per cent and Mpumalanga 51.15 per cent. This is the will of the people.

The SACP will defend it in advancing working-class interests across the board and considering the way forward nationally and in provinces where the ANC, although remaining the largest party by electoral support, did not secure the 50 per cent plus one required to form a government without coalition arrangements and consequently needs to engage, in consultation with Alliance partners, with other parties regarding such arrangements.

The engagements extend to the situation in KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC has declined to a third position, but no party has secured the 50 per cent plus one majority required to form a provincial government without coalition arrangements, as well as to the Western Cape in considering the countrywide reality.

The SACP Secretariat has convened a special extended meeting of the Political Bureau, the highest decision-making body of the Party in between its Central Committee plenaries. Extended to SACP provincial secretaries and chairpersons, the Political Bureau will accordingly meet in Johannesburg tomorrow, Wednesday, 4 June 2024, to consider the way forward based on the options arising from the meeting held on Monday. Only after this process of extensive consultation will the SACP communicate the outcome at an appropriate time publicly following its communication protocol. This outcome will be taken to the Alliance consultative process. 

Following the resolution of the immediate question of coalition arrangements within the tight timeframe required by our country’s constitution and electoral law, a process of in-depth evaluation of the results, considering all aspects, will ensue. To this end, the SACP will hold a plenary of its Central Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Party in between its national congresses, by the end of June 2024.

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, National Spokesperson, 4 June 2024