SACP General-Secretary Solly Mapaila and EFF leader Julius Malema at the opening of the Conference of the Left held in Boksburg on May 29. The Conference of the Left should therefore be understood not as an end in itself, but as the beginning of a longer and more necessary national conversation, says the writer
Zamikhaya Maseti
Last week, the South African Communist Party (SACP) successfully convened the much-discussed Conference of the Left.
The significance of this gathering should not be underestimated. It arrived at a moment when the South African body politic finds itself confronting profound questions about the future of democracy, economic transformation, social justice and the enduring relevance of progressive politics in an era marked by uncertainty, inequality, unemployment and ideological drift.
Predictably, the Conference triggered a lively debate. Several questions were posed. Is there anything left of the South African Left? Does the Left still possess the intellectual and organisational capacity to influence the national discourse?
