Johannesburg - The SACP will support and campaign for the ANC in next year's general election, its said on Sunday.
“The SACP shall unapologetically and without doubt go all out to campaign for the ANC as the leading political formation of our alliance and liberation movement in the forthcoming elections in 2014,” spokesman Alex Mashilo said in a year end message.
“We will confront all forms of opposition against our revolutionary alliance and its independent formations, regardless of who their advocates and agents are.
“This will be part of our tribute to the memory of Tata Madiba (former president Nelson Mandela), who remained a loyal cadre of the ANC to the end,” he said.
The announcement follows the National Union of Metalworkers of SA's (Numsa) resolution not to support the African National Congress or any other political party in the 2014 general election.
The union is an affiliate of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), which is an ally of the ANC and the SA Communist Party.
Numsa also called on Cosatu to break away from the alliance.
Numsa's secretary general Irvin Jim accused the ANC of using the workers as voting fodder.
Mashilo said the ANC and the SACP had endured a series of attacks, in one of which they were called sell-outs for forming an alliance.
“In contrast, it is this revolutionary alliance heading our national liberation movement that defeated apartheid and put in place our present democratic transition in 1994,” he said.
It was because of the alliance that South Africa was a better place today than it was 19 years ago, with million of people now able to access human and labour rights, shelter, clean water and sanitation, electricity, education at all levels, HIV treatment, social security and welfare.
“The SACP welcomes these advances, which under no circumstances can amount to a sell-out and be classified as worse than apartheid.”
However, a lot still had to be done to reverse the damage of apartheid oppression, based on capitalist exploitation.
Mashilo said the SACP believed Cosatu would overcome its problems, and it would not fold its arms and leave Cosatu alone.
“As the SACP, we believe that Cosatu has sufficient capacity to overcome any challenges it comes across, and therefore that its internal mechanisms, processes and procedures must be respected.” - Sapa