The South African Communist Party (SACP) says it is unacceptable that it has been "made the scapegoat" by the African National Congress (ANC) following President Jacob Zuma's Cabinet reshuffle last week.

This follows the ANC's press conference at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning regarding the outcome of its extended national working committee (NWC) meeting on Tuesday.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the NWC has reflected on the call by the party's alliance partners, the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, for Zuma to resign.

He said that the party's allies could have discussed the matter with the party behind closed doors and said the ANC would engage with them on the matter.

But the SACP says it had been in discussions with the ANC about its unhappiness with the current state of affairs and the party is now unhappy that it is blamed for leaks and that the ANC is making it look like the SACP had agreed to Zuma's decision to reshuffle his cabinet.

"The ANC was the first organisation that the SACP officially informed of our party's decision that it was time for President Zuma to resign," the SACP statement reads.

"The SACP informed the ANC before communicating the decision publicly, further stating that we were available for a meeting on the matter. The SACP welcomes the ANC's acceptance of our party's proposal to for a meeting on the decision.

"But it is completely unacceptable to scapegoat the SACP for the lack of consultation by President Jacob Zuma," the SACP said.

Leak allegations rejected

The party said Zuma reshuffled the Cabinet without even consulting the ANC itself on the other positions that were affected and names that were "decided elsewhere", as confirmed by ANC officials in response to the president's unilateral decision.

"The SACP rejects as baseless the allegation that the party leaked information from its bilateral engagements held last week with the ANC and thereby breached confidentiality commitment.

"On the contrary, and as we have said, the leak clearly came from the ranks of the ANC, and sought to portray the SACP as if the party had agreed to the reshuffling of the former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, whereas that was untrue," the statement reads.

"It was, in fact, the leak that compelled the SACP to convene a press briefing on Thursday 30 March to set the record straight. This good decision to set the record straight was taken in good faith because the SACP does not communicate by means of leaks."

The SACP said it would engage further with the ANC on this matter.