South African CP's Red Caravan travels for building people’s power

The South African Communist Party (SACP) prepares for its first independent contest of local government elections since 1994. People's Red Caravan (PRC) is emerging as the organisational backbone of the SACP’s campaign for the elections that will take place on 4 November 2026.

The last issue of the SACP’s Umsebenzi online journal gives place to a ground-level report from the Free State activation in Gladstone, a small village outside Thaba Nchu, written by Thulile Kumalo, the National Gender Coordinator for the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union. According to Kumalo, a full production chain — compost, a piggery, beehives, a fruit-tree nursery, vegetables and agro-processing — was assembled within a week, alongside a groundwater pump, graded gravel roads and a newly opened cooperative store. Moreover, the PRC’s visit also encouraged the revival of local horse racing.

The Caravan explicitly reflects the SACP's local government manifesto, themed “Build People's Power Where We Live.” Writing in the same edition of the Umsebenzi, SACP activist Tenanile Mngomezulu says the Party would campaign for municipalities that “serve people, not profit,” proposing insourcing over outsourcing, ward assemblies, street committees, participatory budgeting and social audits to hold councillors accountable after the vote.