Literally almost non existent. The South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) are all aligned with the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), which has massively improved the lives of millions of people, is extremely corrupt and can be downright incompetent at times (2 ex presidents were some form of HIV/AIDS denialists). The National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) tried to form their own ML party, which I voted for in the last election, but they got too little votes to be part of parliament. The largest "leftist" party would be the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which aim to be some form of ML party but their retoric approaches nazbol territory at times. They are the 3rd biggest political party in parliament. Also the EFF meet the definition of champagne socialists, their leader, Julius Malema, who apparently believes strongly in black liberation, lives in a mansion in a security estate and sends his black kids to an Afrikaans school "for the discipline". Also known for doxxing journalists he disagrees with and wearing a Bertling watch with his "workers overalls". The only good organisation seems to be Abahlali baseMjondolo which do actuall paraxis and are not lead by money hungry hipocractes http://abahlali.org/node/17029/
No, not really. The ANC will sometimes appoint their leaders to positions, which led to the terrible irony of a SACP official who was the head of education at the time arguing against free university during the fees must fall protests. They may speak out sometimes, but they always cave to the will of the ANC eventually, especially considering the current leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, was a CEO involved in the Marikana massacre of mineworkers.
As I said NUMSA has split from them and has formed their own Marxist Leninist political party, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. Unfortunately it was a massive failure because they have 0 seats in parliament on a national and provincial level (despite me voting for them :-( )
Can you give any resources on communist movements in post-Apartheid SA?
Literally almost non existent. The South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) are all aligned with the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), which has massively improved the lives of millions of people, is extremely corrupt and can be downright incompetent at times (2 ex presidents were some form of HIV/AIDS denialists). The National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) tried to form their own ML party, which I voted for in the last election, but they got too little votes to be part of parliament. The largest "leftist" party would be the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which aim to be some form of ML party but their retoric approaches nazbol territory at times. They are the 3rd biggest political party in parliament. Also the EFF meet the definition of champagne socialists, their leader, Julius Malema, who apparently believes strongly in black liberation, lives in a mansion in a security estate and sends his black kids to an Afrikaans school "for the discipline". Also known for doxxing journalists he disagrees with and wearing a Bertling watch with his "workers overalls". The only good organisation seems to be Abahlali baseMjondolo which do actuall paraxis and are not lead by money hungry hipocractes http://abahlali.org/node/17029/
Do the SACP and COSATU have real influence? What’s their approach going forward?
No, not really. The ANC will sometimes appoint their leaders to positions, which led to the terrible irony of a SACP official who was the head of education at the time arguing against free university during the fees must fall protests. They may speak out sometimes, but they always cave to the will of the ANC eventually, especially considering the current leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, was a CEO involved in the Marikana massacre of mineworkers.
So they aligned with the national bourgeoisie for national liberation, and now are stuck playing electoral politics with them.
What about the NUMSA? What’s their approach?
As I said NUMSA has split from them and has formed their own Marxist Leninist political party, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. Unfortunately it was a massive failure because they have 0 seats in parliament on a national and provincial level (despite me voting for them :-( )