By Mpho Sekharume 

South African Communist Party (SACP) Secretary-General (SG), Solly Mapaila, intensified the growing friction between his party and the ANC during his address at a provincial Chris Hani commemorative event in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

Mapaila’s address signalled a significant departure from the traditional unity of the Tripartite Alliance by directly challenging the current administration's integrity.

He warned that the state faces an existential threat if executive accountability is not enforced immediately, whilst insisting that institutional delays are being exploited to facilitate the wholesale liquidation of South African public assets.

Mapaila further positioned the SACP as the primary bulwark against the privatisation of the energy sector. He alleged that the Government of National Unity (GNU) is working in tandem with international lenders to compromise national sovereignty.

“We welcome this Constitutional Court judgment. This impeachment must move fast because if it is delayed, we will have no government infrastructure, as everything would have been sold.

“The GNU government wants to sell Eskom. They want to put Eskom in the market, and they think we don't know that. They are collaborating with the IMF. That will never happen as long as we are alive in South Africa.

“They are people who have even been told to run Operation Vulindlela, business people. They are right inside the Presidency; they are sharing the resources of this country. It's a new form of state capture, and they are now even selling water to the people,” Mapaila explicitly said to attendees.

By labelling Operation Vulindlela as a new form of State capture, Mapaila effectively accused the Presidency of prioritising corporate interests over the poor. This public condemnation suggests that the rift between the SACP and the ANC leadership may be reaching a point of no return as local government elections loom.