South African CP's Red Caravan continues to travel

the People’s Red Caravan (PRC) was launched by the SACP in June 2025 in Motlhabe village, North West, followed by an activation in Matibidi, Mpumalanga, in July 2025. The programme was conceived as a nationwide grassroots initiative centred on community self-reliance, food security, local production and organisation.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) has made its People’s Red Caravan (PRC) a central element of its efforts to rebuild grassroots organisation, promote community self-reliance and connect political activity with practical responses to poverty, unemployment and inadequate public services. The initiative has gained particular prominence in 2026, as the SACP prepares to contest the local government elections independently for the first time on a nationwide basis.

The SACP presents the Red Caravan not as a conventional election campaign or a charity programme, but as a method of organising working-class and poor communities around immediate social and economic needs. Its activities include food production, community and household agriculture, cooperatives, community stores, infrastructure repairs, water projects, health and clinic improvements, educational and cultural programmes, community safety initiatives and the development of sports facilities. The party says the objective is to leave behind functioning local organisations and productive capacity rather than simply completing short-term projects.

From community projects to a national programme

The programme has expanded considerably during 2026. The SACP's Central Committee said in August that the Red Caravan should be “deepened and widened” as part of the party's strategy for building local economic production and working-class political organisation. It called for the programme to be connected to the development of cooperatives, food sovereignty, community organisation, political education and mobilisation.

One of the best documented examples is Gladstone village in the Free State, where the Red Caravan has supported crop production, household food production, egg and honey production, agro-processing and a communally owned cooperative store. The SACP says the project was deliberately designed as a continuing relationship with the community rather than a one-off campaign event.

The programme has also been used to address water and food-security problems. According to the Daily Maverick, by the end of August the SACP had established community farms and drilled boreholes in six provinces. In Qunu in the Eastern Cape, the party reported drilling a 160-metre borehole providing drinking water. In one North West village, General Secretary Solly Mapaila said the party had installed a water pump at a cost far below the figure quoted for a government tender.

Agricultural production has also become a significant component. The SACP reported that a farm established in Mpumalanga had produced approximately 15,000 eggs and 35,000 heads of spinach. Other projects involve communal farming, vegetable production, goats and orchards.

Recent expansion and the election campaign

The Red Caravan has acquired particular importance since the SACP decided to contest the 2026 local elections independently of the African National Congress (ANC), its long-standing alliance partner. In August, the party announced more than 4,000 candidates and incorporated the Caravan into its electoral strategy. Rather than limiting the campaign to rallies and manifesto commitments, the SACP has sought to demonstrate its approach through projects already operating in communities.

The party's election manifesto states that its candidates should be accountable to their wards and that the Caravan represents the practical side of its programme: addressing water shortages, food insecurity, unused land and failing local infrastructure while organising communities around these issues.

The SACP has also linked the initiative to its opposition to outsourcing and privatisation at municipal level. Its electoral programme calls for stronger public services, properly equipped municipal workers, local procurement, support for cooperatives and the use of suitable municipal land for food production, housing, clinics and other public purposes.

Red Caravan and community safety

The programme has recently been extended beyond economic and infrastructure projects. In September, following the discovery of eight women's bodies around Kempton Park and other parts of Ekurhuleni, the SACP called for stronger community mobilisation against crime and gender-based violence. The party cited the Red Caravan as an example of community-based mobilisation that it says has helped address serious crime problems and argued that such activity should become a nationwide movement.

This reflects the broader direction the SACP has given the programme: community organisation is intended to address not only food, water and economic problems but also public safety and social conditions.

And now the Red Caravan moves to Harold Molobela District, Mpumalanga Province from 23-26 September.