SACP says it has no intention of deregistering as a political party after IEC notice of cancellation

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Communist Party (SACP) says it has no intention of deregistering as a political party after receiving a notice of cancellation by the Electoral Commission (IEC).

This week, the IEC released a list of 192 inactive political parties it aims to officially deregister.

These were parties not represented in any municipal, provincial or national legislature and had not renewed their registrations.

Parties have been given until the 24th of March to make representations to the IEC on why their statuses should not be cancelled.

SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo says the party has every intention of keeping its political party as it plans on contesting elections outside of the African National Congress (ANC).

“As I speak to you, the SACP is holding a party building commission, chaired by the secretariat Solly Mapaila and among the key issues on the agenda is preparations to contest the 2026 local government elections. The meeting has made extensive progress on this front.”

Mashilo says the SACP has informed the IEC of its intentions to establish itself as a truly independent political party, outside of the anc.

“From now on, the SACP must be invited to all party liaison committees from all over the country. We no longer want to miss any information or hear any information from an IEC statement when in fact we are contesting the 2026 local government elections.”