SACP threat to ANC empty

Here was a time when the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the trade union federation, Cosatu, were the tail that wagged the dog, the ANC.

- Sydney Majoko

The historic tripartite alliance between the three parties meant that the SACP was always part of government without actually putting their name on the ballot box and, more importantly, they influenced government policy through this alliance with the ANC.

Before the dawn of democracy, it made complete sense that the ANC and SACP were in an alliance.

After all, all ANC activities and activists were branded "communist and terrorist" in nature by the apartheid government.

It therefore came as no surprise when Nelson Mandela included former SACP general secretary Joe Slovo in this country's first democratic Cabinet.

Since then, the SACP has had some sort of representation in all ANC Cabinets, showing the extent to which the ANC values the contribution of the SACP to their alliance.

Unfortunately, the SACP has taken this to mean it is indispensable to the ANC and always threatens to register and contest elections on its own.