How was that for you? The ANC policy conference, that is. For many journalists — a whopping 1,600 were accredited to cover the event — huddled in the bitter cold at the party’s five-yearly policy jaw-jaw out at Nasrec, the question we were left asking was: is that it?
It was billed as the greatest policy contestation of our time. High road or Jacob Zuma road? Failed state or Guptastan? Oops, sorry, that’s the same thing. It was all go. In the run-up, there had been a gnashing of teeth, pointing of fingers and even threats of fisticuffs among ANC leaders.
The Free State ANC, no doubt with a script written for it by the Gupta family, made noises about white monopoly capital. Even Mosebenzi Zwane, the Gupta employee masquerading as the mining minister, had his script in hand to talk about the mining charter — particularly the bits he was given instruction on, such as the clause that says if you arrived in SA from India in 1993 then you clearly suffered under apartheid and should benefit from BEE deals.
I am meandering.
That was the scene. We expected fireworks. What did we get? A damp squib. No land will be expropriated. The ANC will talk about it (again) in December. That makes it 23 full years of banging on about land. At this rate we will still be talking about it come 2030. White monopoly capital? Don’t say that — it’s monopoly capital now. That helps with SA’s 54% youth unemployment.
The Free State ANC, no doubt with a script written for it by the Gupta family, made noises about white monopoly capital
Basically, nothing was resolved. So, 2,500 delegates and six days of hot air later, the ANC left Jo’burg with the words of Zuma ringing in its ears that the party is united (not true) and with not a single policy in hand.
Thankfully, the comrades had some fun. As usual at these gatherings, one does not want to spend the hours after a full day of defending the Guptas still talking to comrades. So some comrades went out for sundowners and so forth.
The masses might not have bread (what with 9m people unemployed and all that) but that did not deter the comrades from splashing out on the booze. One bill showed some cadres spent a whopping R99,227.70 on champagne, whisky and cigars at one nightclub. The waiter got a R9,000 tip when the party left at 5.05am.
I have no doubt the comrades were rushing back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to debate the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank.
Meanwhile, at Nasrec, journalists feeling hungry had to make do with the canteen food. Zuma visited the journalists’ enclosure on the last day — journalists were given little or no access to ordinary delegates, leading to many clandestine meetings at nightclubs after the day’s debates — and said we had done a good job. That made us all feel better, until we realised Zuma’s longevity meant our words had had no effect.
So we queued to eat. It was thin gruel. On offer were various stewed meats, boiled vegetables, some wan salads and a variety of drinks. You ate to live. I had deep-fried chicken (not too bad) and spinach (okay), and avoided the pasta salad. The pap was decent, one of the very helpful ANC media workers told me. I tried it, and I am sad to say he has very low standards in the pap department.
At the end of the conference the indefatigable Gwede Mantashe came to thank us for the coverage, a deejay played some music, we had a couple of beers and went home.
The food wasn’t great. But, then, neither is the once-mighty ANC.
** ANC policy conference canteen Nasrec, Johannesburg
***** Makhosi Khoza**** Excellent *** Good** Poor * Jacob Zuma
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