The South African Communist Party won 271 seats in the 2026 local government elections, its first independent contest after more than three decades of campaigning under the ANC's banner, and it is now refusing to hand the ANC automatic support in hung municipalities.
According to IOL, the party took 2.38% of the national vote on November 11, a result that outpolled the Patriotic Alliance, which secured 192 seats. Daily Maverick reported that the strong showing signals the end of the Tripartite Alliance as it has operated since 1994.
A break with 32 years of subordination
For 14 elections, SACP members and supporters voted for the ANC through the Tripartite Alliance. That arrangement is over as a matter of electoral mechanics, and the party insists it will not be restored on the old terms.
SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila said the party's support could no longer be taken for granted during coalition negotiations in municipalities where no party holds an outright majority.
“There is no automatic support for any single party,” Mapaila told journalists at the National Results Operations Centre in Midrand.
He said the SACP would place the needs of working-class and impoverished communities at the centre of every decision on coalitions.
“We have been campaigning for them for 30 years. We're not coming to them only during elections. We are with them [all the time],” Mapaila said.
Where the SACP won and where it struggled
The party performed strongly in parts of Nelson Mandela Bay, where it won four seats, and it attracted support in Limpopo and North West. Its showing was weaker in Gauteng, where some voters backed ActionSA and the Democratic Alliance.
The wider municipal picture remains dominated by the ANC, which took just over 30% of the vote nationally, won 3,248 seats, controls 53 councils and leads in 128. But the ANC's shrinking base, and the SACP's decision to walk away from the alliance ticket, marks a political rupture that the ruling party cannot ignore.
Why the SACP says the alliance buried its voice
SACP Central Committee and Politburo member Dr Alex Mashilo said the party would not enter automatic coalition agreements because its new electoral position had changed the terms of engagement.
“No, there cannot be automatic coalitions. You see, the terms under which we engage now have been reconfigured,” Mashilo said in an interview with the public broadcaster.
He said the alliance's presence in Parliament, provincial legislatures and municipal councils had never reflected the composition of its three partners, with the ANC dominating political representation while the SACP had no direct voice of its own.
“So that thing was burying the voice of the SACP, and it reached a point where it posed an existential threat to the SACP,” Mashilo said.
He said the party had been forced to reintroduce itself to South Africans during the campaign precisely because its views went unheard inside alliance-dominated institutions. The election now allows SACP councillors to speak directly in municipalities, including Johannesburg, instead of relying on the ANC to carry their positions.
“There is no way we can go back to an arrangement we have been appealing [against]. It needed to be changed to reflect the composition of the alliance,” he said.
Grassroots democracy before coalition decisions
Mashilo said the Politburo had reaffirmed a decision for provincial structures to convene meetings across the country, inviting both party members and community members who voted for the SACP. The meetings will provide feedback and allow communities to express their views before decisions are made.
“We are not taking a decision without democracy and then imposing it outside there. Our process is thoroughly democratic because we have an experience of participating in processes where our voices were not taken into account,” he said.
ANC expects support the SACP has not offered
Mapaila's position sits in open contradiction with ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane, who said the ANC would naturally look to the SACP for support in forming stable municipal administrations. That assumption is exactly what the SACP spent the campaign rejecting.
For black working-class communities still waiting for the promises of the democratic transition, the message is blunt: the SACP now answers to its own voters, not to Luthuli House.
Building a united left against the GNU
Mapaila said the party would convene a summit with left-wing formations that contested the elections to agree on a common political programme and strategy. The gathering follows the establishment of the Council of the Left, which gave the SACP a one-year mandate to lead and coordinate grassroots socialist formations.
“The left forces primarily represent the lowest in our communities, the poorest of the poor, those that have been neglected by the democratic transition, and those that are victims of the capitalist discourse in our country,” Mapaila said.
The party has also kept up its criticism of the Government of National Unity, and in particular the ANC's decision to bring the DA and Freedom Front Plus into government. The SACP argues that parties rooted in white minority interests cannot represent black people or the working class, a critique that now carries more weight with 271 councillors elected in the party's own name.
People's World noted that the SACP is not walking out of the alliance altogether: it sees the independent run as a way to force the reconfiguration that years of talks failed to deliver. The Left Views reported the party's total at 708,712 votes, evidence that a socialist voice untethered from the ANC can still find a national audience.
Frequently asked questions
How many seats did the SACP win in the 2026 local elections?
The SACP won 271 municipal seats with 2.38% of the national vote, its first independent electoral contest since 1994.
Will the SACP support the ANC in hung councils?
No. General secretary Solly Mapaila said there is no automatic support for any single party, and any cooperation must serve working-class and impoverished communities.
What is the SACP's position on the Tripartite Alliance?
The party wants the alliance reconfigured so that its composition is reflected in political representation. It says the old arrangement buried the SACP's voice and posed an existential threat to the party.