BusinessLive reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) will be launching its long-awaited worker’s party, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP), in December.  

But it still has to decide whether or not to contest the 2019 elections.  The SA Communist Party (SACP) is also mulling contesting the polls independently of the ANC and, if it and the SRWP both enter the ring, they will be scrambling for the same votes to the left of SA’s political divide.  The SRWP would also be taking on the EFF, which fashions itself as a leftist socialist party.  The new party could also attract sections of the ANC unhappy with the trajectory of the governing party under President Cyril Ramaphosa.  The SRWP has been registered as a fully-fledged party with the Independent Electoral Commission.  It will hold its inaugural congress in December, when it will decide whether to contest the 2019 elections and at which level — provincial or national.  Its election policy platform will also have to be decided on.  The SRWP’s interim chair, Zanoxolo Wayile, believes there is room for a party which represents the interests of the “working class”, particularly in the context of rising unemployment and a shrinking economy.  He added that the party would not rule out possibly working with parties with the same ideological outlook, such as the EFF, but had not yet entertained such discussions.

• Read the full original of this informative report by Natasha Marrian at BusinessLive

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