For at least the time being the tensions within the ANC’s tripartite alliance over the establishment of the National Planning Commission (NPC) appear to have been assuaged. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe assures us that all is well, and to prove it he had beside him at his announcement two nodding figureheads, one each from the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions COSATU). Of course none of this means that SACP and COSATU are actually appeased. But merely that the ANC stalwarts have convinced them that they need to go along to get along. My guess is that the ANC hierarchy was happy to remind their partners on the left precisely who holds all of the cards right now in South African politics.