A bid by the South African Communist Party (SACP) to assert itself against its mammoth ally, the African National Congress, ended in tactical retreat by the party as its 10th congress finished yesterday.
Concerned that the ANC might be lured by South Africa's financial establishment into a solution which would deracialise capitalism but benefit only a small portion of black people, the SACP asserted that the greatest danger to the "national democratic revolution" came from within the ANCled tripartite alliance, not from its external enemies.
A primary target of SACP criticism was the ANC-led government's macroeconomic policy, Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR). The SACP labelled GEAR a capitalist-inspired policy which laid too much stress on privatisation and fiscal discipline, and not enough on development.
It asserted, too, that GEAR represents a serious deviation from the policy of Reconstruction and Development under which the ANC-led alliance campaigned in the 1994 election. But, instead of deflecting the ANC from GEAR, the SACP attack drew fierce defence of the policy from President Nelson Mandela and the Deputy President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, and a virtual ultimatum to cease public criticism of the ANC or leave the alliance.
Mr Mandela accused the party of behaving like opposition parties in its public criticism of ANC policy. If the SACP persisted it should be "aware of the consequences", he said.
"Gear is the fundamental policy of the ANC and we are not going to change it because of your pressure," he added.
His public rebuff was followed the next day by an even stronger address to the congress from Mr Mbeki, himself a former member of the SACP central committee. Mr Mbeki denied that GEAR was inconsistent with Reconstruction and Development (RDP). He made a spirited defence of Mr Mandela against the reported scornful rejection of the President's defence of GEAR as the "rantings of an old man".
He also accused the SACP of misrepresenting government policy to present itself as "a revolutionary watchdog over the ANC", and of using innuendo instead of articulating its criticism in plain, honest language.
The SACP deputy general secretary, Mr Jeremy Cronin, defended the SACP's right to criticise the ANC. But his tone was apologetic if not contrite. It contained, critically, a reaffirmation of the party's loyalty to the ANC-led alliance.
Dr Tom Lodge, professor of political studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, saw the ANCSACP clash at the congress as another instalment in the incremental assertion by the ANC of its hegemony over its once powerful ally.