South African Communist Party
SACP welcomes the President’s re-election, marking the ANC’s democratic return as the leader of our government
Saturday, 15 June 2024: The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the democratic return of the African National Congress (ANC) as the leader of our government, with President Cyril Ramaphosa re-elected on Friday night, 14 June 2024, and Thoko Didiza elected as the Speaker of the National Assembly. The balance of political forces under which this happened, measured by the distribution of seats and conduct of a number of political parties prior to the first sitting of and in the National Assembly following the May 2024 elections, was characterised by precarity.
While following the elections the ANC remains the largest political party by electoral support, for the first time since our April 1994 democratic breakthrough it fell short of the required minimum of 50 per cent plus one to form an outright-majority government.
There were engagements within the Alliance and each Alliance partner expressed itself publicly on the preferred options regarding what the way forward had to be under the circumstances towards the first sitting of the National Assembly on Friday.
The SACP expressed its strong opposition to a coalition with the DA and the MKP, reaffirming its strategic consistency against neo-liberalism, state capture and attempts at counter-revolutionary destabilisation. We put forward our option for an ANC-led minority government with the features of a tight government of national unity, while the ANC preferred a wider government of national unity with the features of the below 50 per cent plus one minority situation.