LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026: SACP showcases community projects in election campaign as alliance frays

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> Launching its first independent election campaign, the SACP has fielded over 4,000 candidates and rolled out a hands-on ‘People’s Red Caravan’ initiative to establish farms, sink boreholes and deliver rural infrastructure.

Flipping through the party’s campaign manifesto in Braamfontein on Sunday, 30 August, South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Solly Mapaila beamed with pride as he showed the farms the party has established and the boreholes it has drilled across six provinces.

“This water pump, it was costing about R72-million in a government tender. We did it for less than R20,000, and the people have got water,” he said, pointing to a photo of a water pump the party installed in a village in North West.

The community projects are part of the SACP’s People’s Red Caravan campaign, launched in the build-up to the 2026 local government elections.

The party has run in multiple by-elections before, but it is fully contesting elections independently for the first time and has fielded more than 4,000 candidates. Its candidate list draws from beyond its membership base to include community leaders through strategic partnerships, including religious leaders, community activists, youth and women’s organisations, and civic organisations. The party is still in the process of finalising its mayoral candidates for metros.

So far, its actions have included setting up community farms, sinking wells and repairing local infrastructure. One farm established in Mpumalanga has already produced 15,000 eggs and 35,000 heads of spinach. In another project in the Eastern Cape village of Qunu, the party drilled a 160m borehole that provides drinkable water.

“We are left with three provinces to launch this as a national intervention. Then provinces will also launch districts and districts will also launch branches. So the people will no longer have to be poor when they can do something for themselves, because we have got enough land,” said Mapaila.

Despite the independent contestation, Mapaila insists the party is not breaking away from the Tripartite Alliance with the ANC and Cosatu.

The party announced its decision to contest elections in December 2024 , citing ideological differences with the ANC. These included “political deviations” on key issues such as land ownership and wealth, declining voter turnout, corruption, and a drift towards neoliberal policies.

The decision caused a rift between the two parties after the ANC delivered a contentious ultimatum instructing those with dual party membership to formally declare which party they intend to represent.

Tensions between the two parties ramped up at the weekend when the ANC expelled SACP Western Cape secretary Benson Ngqentsu from the provincial legislature over his decision to stand as an SACP candidate in the local elections.

On Sunday, 30 August, the SACP delivered its key manifesto pledges, unveiling its campaign strategy and defending its decision to go independent.

“Our independent electoral contest is not a withdrawal from the alliance, or [from] the struggle for socialism.