Divisions within the tripartite alliance were clear on Sunday as the secretary of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape, Faiez Jacobs, called for unity, saying the ruling party has reached crisis point.

"I am making a plea for all of us. This movement, and our country indeed, is at a crossroads. We are at a crisis," Jacobs told a group of about 400 ANC supporters.

Jacobs was one of a number of alliance members who spoke at the memorial service of the late Judge Essa Moosa at Belgravia High School in Cape Town. Moosa died on Sunday February 26 at the age of 81.

"We remember a better ANC, we remember a unified ANC. We remember an ANC true to its people and in service of the people. And so I call on you to roll up your sleeves, to come back. Come back to the movement, let us give our people a better ANC," Jacobs pleaded to the audience.

Following Jacobs' address, chairperson of the South African Communist Party in the Western Cape Anthony Dietrich said the party is strongly considering contesting elections.

"And so we are contemplating – we need to consider the fact [whether or not] the national democratic revolution is on track," Dietrich said.

"And if it veered, then certainly someone must step in and ensure that we bring the national democratic revolution [to] its conclusion."

Dietrich said factional politics is eating away at the soul of the ANC.

"We need to take a stance on whether that rot is going to take us down with the ANC," he said.

The leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions in the Western Cape expressed concern over the direction the tripartite alliance was taking.

"[Moosa] told us so many times in no uncertain terms that the liberation of our country cannot be only voting every five years and ensuring that the black wealthy class legitimises the grand theft of apartheid," he said.

Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko and Deputy Minister of International Relations Nomaindia Mfeketo were all in attendance.

Mfeketo ended her speech with a call to restore the ANC's regional structures.

"The branches in the Western Cape used to be strong. It is up to us if we want to destroy the work done by comrade Essa and many many others – but we destroy it [at] our own peril," she said.