More than two years of lockdowns, money woes and bickering over who should “step aside” have left the ANC somewhat dishevelled. And it’s showing, if the party’s long-awaited policy discussion documents are anything to go by.
The documents, released on Friday, are set to take centre stage at the ANC’s policy conference in July, after first being discussed in branch meetings. The final policy positions will be adopted at the elective conference in December.
But they lack coherence and consistency. “It’s like I’m seeing organisational implosion in motion,” says Susan Booysen, emeritus professor at Wits University and author of Precarious Power: Compliance and Discontent Under Ramaphosa’s ANC.
In Booysen’s view, the papers give the impression that the party is lacking in vision and is desperately looking to find one. Such is the ANC’s dominance, however, that people will still vote for it at present, and leaders will remain in place, even if the party isn’t sure what it stands for, she says.
While the policy documents reference the ANC’s “existential crisis” at least five times, they do also offer the promise of a “renewal commission”. But that body is only set to come up with a vision for the party by 2032 — by which time some analysts predict the ANC will have found itself sharing power in a coalition government.
While any obituary for the party may be premature, it is clear from the documents that it fears its “very character as a people’s movement and agent for change is under mortal threat”. This, it says, is because its leaders have lost touch with the needs of ordinary people.
A special edition of the ANC’s Umrabulo magazine, featuring 10 policy discussion documents, was introduced by long-serving party policy head Jeff Radebe at a brief event at Luthuli House on Friday.
Asked by economist Duma Gqubule about hard copies of the documents (these are usually made available by the party), Radebe flashed his phone and reassured Gqubule that “the documents are there” on the ANC’s website. “They were only finalised at the [national working committee meeting] this past Monday,” he apologised.
We have reached a point where we have vote-seeking candidates rather than policy-seeking candidates
— ANC NEC member
The 10 documents cover topics from the internal state of the ANC to the policies it would see the government implement. They include papers on how it envisages fixing the economy, as well as its position on peace and stability, international relations, and social welfare and development.
For Gqubule, the content is disappointing.
For example, in the discussion paper titled “Social Transformation” there aren’t really any new or big ideas, he tells the FM. Instead, a large part of the document is a reflection on the party’s policy proposals at its 2017 Nasrec conference. It’s also largely a cut-and-paste from the websites of five government departments dealing with social transformation issues, he says.
Gqubule also complains that there are no new proposals on how to implement a basic income grant, even though President Cyril Ramaphosa himself last year hinted at the possibility of such a grant being introduced.
“The ANC’s economic transformation committee called for it, and [the party is] now ignoring it,” Gqubule says.
The document, at most, asks ANC members to consider the usefulness of the basic income grant. “Is the basic income grant a solution to help address high levels of unemployment and poverty?” it asks, after stating on just the previous page that such a grant would cushion those in the 18-59 age group from poverty and hunger.
Gqubule says it is his experience that directors-general tend to crowd out many of the commissions where policy proposals are discussed. “There is no voice for ordinary ANC people and it’s just shocking,” he says.
The document on economic transformation is similarly void of substance. “There is nothing about unemployment, poverty and inequality at all,” he says.
Ultimately, though, Gqubule believes the policy documents don’t matter all that much, because “all the ANC resolutions are just suggestions” that are hardly ever implemented.
The party admits as much in the documents, where it asks what more it should do “to develop its organisational capacity, skills and resources” to monitor the implementation of conference resolutions.
In the past, there have been complaints that ANC members lack the technical know-how to draw up policy proposals — hence the involvement of bureaucrats. But an increased focus on its online political school and Facebook and Zoom discussions throughout the lockdown doesn’t seem to have borne any fruit.
An ANC national executive committee (NEC) member, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells the FM the write-ups in the different documents vary in quality, with some of the drafters better able to capture the nub of committee discussions than others. Likening coalition governments to “a crowd of drunkards in a beer hall”, for example, is something that should not have made it into the final document, he says.
Though NEC members are supposed to go through the documents before they are finalised and suggest changes, this doesn’t always happen. “The final draft, that’s when they see it the first time,” he admits.
Lacklustre policy proposals suggest a party more interested in its own internal twists and turns than a push for improvement
— WHAT IT MEANS:
As it is, policy is not exactly top of mind: ANC leaders themselves acknowledge it is leadership battles that dominate the party now.
“The policy space is there, but it is very small. It seems to be taking 20%-30% of the time,” the NEC member says. “As to whether it will give us credible policies, who knows. I’m not saying there aren’t any policy discussions, but it is not what is dominant in our conversations at the moment.”
It marks a shift in priorities. In 2007, when attention was focused on the standoff between then president Thabo Mbeki and his ultimate successor, Jacob Zuma, 70% of the party’s discussion was still about policy, he says.
Now, in a frank admission, the NEC member explains most party leaders want to be in power for the sake of being in power, and to control resources and patronage, rather than to implement policies. “We have reached a point where we have vote-seeking candidates rather than policy-seeking candidates,” he says.
This has already played out at party conferences. The Eastern Cape gathering, for example, had to be extended after leadership squabbles almost collapsed the conference. Yet, despite the extension, no resolutions on policy were produced.
But as Unisa political science professor Dirk Kotzé remarked in an article for academic website The Conversation back in 2017, policy discussions can themselves be a proxy for leadership tussles.
In 2007, for example, Mbeki was regarded as the neoliberal presidential candidate while Zuma was pro-poor and pro-worker. A decade later, at Nasrec, support for “radical economic transformation” (and opposition to “white monopoly capital”) indicated support for Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, while Ramaphosa’s supporters spoke of fighting state capture and implementing “radical socioeconomic transformation”.
It means the dominance of certain positions at the smaller policy conferences leading up to the national elective conference has become an early test of strength for different leadership slates.
The four policy conferences before 2017 gave “a very good indication of what the policy resolutions [would] be at the national conferences that follow”, Kotzé writes. But the ANC was so divided by 2017 that the policy conference had no clear outcome.
As a result, the big policy battles — such as those about land expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank — were kicked forward to the elective conference in Nasrec that year, where the ultimate decisions ended up being a clumsy compromise.
Five years on, neither the land nor the Bank resolutions have been implemented. The ANC didn’t get enough support in parliament to push through its proposal on expropriation without compensation, while there wasn’t enough money for the nationalisation of the Bank, it says in the latest policy discussion documents. It also flags a fear that “private speculators who have been lobbying” for Bank nationalisation would “make massive financial gains from the process at the expense of SA”.
The ANC was so divided by 2017 that the policy conference had no clear outcome
This year, the policy battles could be less fierce as Ramaphosa may run uncontested for the party presidency, while his opponents aim to crowd out the positions lower down. But lockdowns mean there hasn’t been a proper physical gathering to test how successfully he has consolidated power.
The party didn’t have its midterm national general council, originally set for mid-2020, so Ramaphosa’s detractors could see the policy conference as an opportunity to test their support.
Already they have taken a position on the party’s step-aside rule, according to which those charged with crimes should vacate their positions in the party as well as in government. While the ANC has been able to suspend those unwilling to do the former, the latter has proved to be a somewhat more complex matter due to labour laws.
Still, the policy discussions aren’t entirely devoid of content.
“Strengthening Economic Recovery and Reconstruction to Build an Inclusive Economy”, for example, suggests big departures from some of the party’s current positions. These include changes to the model of state-owned enterprises, less red tape for private business and changes in the way electricity is provided.
Though there are differences of opinion in the party on these issues, battles around them have yet to be waged in the open. It is possible that some in the party are still analysing the contents. Or, perhaps, it’s a sign that they’ve finally stopped caring.
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