SACP keeps coalition cards face down until the votes are counted
The party will not say before the final results whether it would work with the ANC, calling any early declaration premature and careerist.
The South African Communist Party will not say, before the final election results are in, whether it would work with the African National Congress, the party it once partnered in government, after contesting this election on its own anti-neoliberal platform.
Put that question directly in an eNCA (YouTube) broadcast, the party’s answer was that it will make no such declaration at this time.
Its position is that coalitions are a matter of objective results, which tell the party what is possible and what is not. It is not automatically excluding or including anybody in how it will work with other organisations once the vote is counted.
The party argued that stating an approach to coalitions now would be counting chickens before they hatch, and that it would be premature. It described such an early declaration as opportunistic and careerist, and said it did not enter these elections with a careerist orientation.
The stance leaves open, at least on the record, the question of cooperation with the ANC, which the party contested against alone after campaigning on anti-neoliberal policies and in the context of the current government and the government of national unity.
The party’s refusal to commit is itself the answer for now. It says it will fully understand the elections before deciding how it deals with other organisations.
Source: eNCA (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxOMICVvKIQ
