BL Premium reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is set to back the SA Communist party’s (SACP’s) decision to contest the 2026 local government elections independently of the ANC.
However, the union’s congress delegates will have the final say on the matter. NUM is holding a three-day national elective congress in Boksburg. In its secretariat report, the Cosatu affiliate called for the mobilisation of the “popular front of the left” against the government of national unity (GNU). The SACP announced in December 2024 it would contest the 2026 local government elections under its own banner. The party, which has campaigned for the ANC since SA’s first democratic elections in 1994, has become increasingly critical of its track record and has spoken out against state capture, malfeasance, maladministration, looting, and poor service delivery. SACP leaders such as Gwede Mantashe, Blade Nzimande, David Masondo, Thulas Nxesi and the late Pravin Gordhan have served in the ANC government for years, despite the party announcing periodically it was considering contesting elections on its own to take up the plight of the working class and the poor. In its congress documents, the NUM bemoaned the country’s socioeconomic crises and blamed the GNU for “substituting” the tripartite alliance (the ANC, Cosatu and SACP) as the “strategic centre” of power.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, NUM president Dan Balepile slams ANC for working with ‘class enemies’, at Sunday World
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