Cape Town - The South African Communist Party's Western Cape provincial council (PC) has urged the SACP to consider going it alone in future elections.
In a statement issued on Sunday following the SACP Western Cape's 1st PC meeting since the election of the new provincial executive committee (PEC), the PC said the central focus of the meeting had been preparations for the SACP's 14th national congress in Boksburg from July 10 to 15.
The council had received an analysis of the current political situation from SACP second general secretary Solly Mapaila, "re-affirming our resolve to provide leadership of the progressive forces against the decadence in the ANC to advance the national democratic revolution [NDR]".
"No one has [a] monopoly over the leadership of the NDR. Accordingly, the party will aggressively mobilise various class forces across society to organically, as a broad front, to build hegemony and alternative for seizure of working class power. It is in this context that the 1st provincial council re-affirms the 8th provincial congress that the party must consider an electoral route," the PC said.
"The council noted that while removing [President Jacob] Zuma will not solve our problems, but keeping him there is exacerbating our problems hence his removal, Zuma, would serve as a strong step towards self-correction.
"Council noted the ANC is on a dangerous declining path which will degenerate and destroy the movement. Recent developments in the ANC PEC in the Western Cape represents a symptoms of a deeper crisis. First, the divisive tendencies displayed at the aborted provincial policy conference were unfortunate. Second, meetings that are held in the dark of night to the exclusion of other PEC members is a major concern. Worse still, the fact that leading PEC members, regional leaders, and the leagues have distanced themselves from those PEC decisions exposes the depth of divisions," the PC said.
"In this respect, it is incumbent on the ANC NEC to act and combat factionalism and enforce discipline in light of the recent purging through dissolution of structures. The perversion of the constitution through selective approach of dissolving [the] Cape Metro REC [regional executive committee] while doing nothing in [the] Boland is problematic. In fact, the ANC NEC list process report uncovered gross acts of non-registration of candidates and manipulation of lists. The recommendations of the report must be implemented in full," the PC said.