This means when the ANC makes senior appointments or deployments to the state, it must first discuss the decision with its alliance partners.
The ANC has been forced to agree to the South African Communist Party (SACP)’s long-standing demand for the reconfiguration of the Tripartite Alliance so that other partners of the alliance have a say in the decision-making, including governance issues.
This means when the ANC makes senior appointments or deployments to the state, it must first discuss the decision with its alliance partners.
Addressing the SACP’s 5th special national congress in Boksburg, ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile said the question of alliance reconfiguration would be back on the party’s agenda as soon as January when the party’s national executive committee convened to start the new year.
“The reconfiguration of the Alliance must come back. The time has arrived for us to do it, we are in a new situation now,” Mashatile said, confirming the two organisations would meet soon to discuss the issue further.
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Long time coming
The SACP was agitated by the ANC making all decisions unilaterally and merely consulted its partners after the fact, or sometimes not at all.
The issue caused tension between the SACP and the ANC, which is the leader of the Tripartite Alliance comprising the ANC, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosattu and SACP.
The alliance of the nationalist ANC and its Marxist partners was established during the struggle era as a strategy to fight apartheid as a united front. The pact is not written down but is said to be “forged in blood” – meaning it was an internalised liberation-oriented pact.
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A change in attitudes
In the past, the ANC refused to entertain the matter, with former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule completely rejecting the reconfiguration during his tenure and sending SACP members packing when they came with it to him.
But after the SACP’s recent announcement that it would contest the 2026 local government elections separately from the ANC, whether the reconfiguration happened or not, the ANC was forced to come cap-in-hand to agree to the idea.
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