He was elected unopposed on 15 July 2022 in his current position at the SACP National Congress.
[1] Solly Mapaila was appointed as the Second Deputy General Secretary of the South African Communist Party in 2012.
[5][6] A group of Zuma supporters threatened to open criminal charges against him if he continued to say that the president is corrupt.
[7] Mapaila directly questioned the purported intelligence report titled "Operation Checkmate" used by President Jacob Zuma to fire the former Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan.
[9] Mapaila was considered a leading candidate to succeed Blade Nzimande as general secretary of the SACP for a number of years and was ultimately elected to this position in 2022.