ANC’s difficult task is to add flesh to the bones of its decisions

In taking stock of the outcomes of the ANC’s December conference and its January 8 statement, it is clear that the conference resolutions carry a mix of hope, rhetorical commitment and, in some instances, a tinge of urgency.

The ink will be dry on the paper the resolutions are printed on before they are evaluated and monitored, let alone implemented.

In a politically charged environment, resolutions and “announcements” like the one on free education will seldom enjoy the luxury of multiyear consultations, drafting and review before scrutiny.

ANC party bosses understand this, and the value of a rhetorical commitment to land reform, free education and greater support to small business and co-operatives, for example. Such commitments boost the morale and confidence of those within and outside the ANC, while also serving as a pending promise to be picked up (at some point in the future) by those disaffected by the direction of the organisation. Remember Mcebo Dlamini leading the march on Luthuli House in pursuit of one of the congress’s oldest resolutions?

President Jacob Zuma also understands that unimplemented conference resolutions are a tool waiting to be used by party bosses and rank-and-file members. Pick a broadly worded resolution replete with “qualifications” that make it mean anything and everything to anyone and you have a winner.

Take land reform; the ANC has suggested that it will take the steps needed to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation, but what will happen before that? A series of cautious steps; a workshop or lekgotla, a highlevel panel and the longawaited full audit of state land.

These preliminary steps suggest caution to those who hold land (or have an interest in the “stability” of the status quo), and suggest inertia to the communities with unfunded or delayed land claims or those with unsecure tenure rights.

Land means different things to different groups in SA, and one is unable to effect meaningful land reform without an impact on the economy, agricultural land ownership or food security, as the ANC has suggested. You can’t expropriate in the public interest without narrowly defining who that “public” is, nor without a shock to the structure, ownership patterns and design of the land market in SA. This tension isn’t found in the conference resolutions, because details and minutiae complicate the picture of “unity” that is needed between two ideologically disparate factions with convergent interests.

Similarly, on the higher education front, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s mettle will be tested (and that of the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Treasury) when he has to bring order, detail and process to Zuma’s free education announcement.

The chaos at some institutions (including the stampede and winding queues at technical vocational education and training colleges), coupled with the political football the issue has become, will no doubt be of concern — but secondary to the concerns around the need to win the 2019 elections.

The policy plane will be designed and built as it is being flown. Renowned South African writer Lewis Nkosi suggested that writing was “primarily a struggle with language; words refusing to be made flesh”. Similarly, the strong resolutions of the ANC conference — and their details, implementation and the effects of the implementation on the people — are questions on the lips of many of the ANC faithful.

ZUMA UNDERSTANDS UNIMPLEMENTED CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS ARE A TOOL WAITING TO BE USED BY PARTY BOSSES AND RANKAND-FILE MEMBERS

As early strides are made in campaigns towards the 2019 poll, the interrogations, in living rooms with plasticcovered sofas and roomdividers during the door-todoor campaigns will be tense. The people will require an indication of a clearly outlined vision and plan to give flesh to progressivesounding resolutions.

This will require steering a disparate, fragmented and distracted state machinery, short on cash and expertise at multiple levels and spheres of government, to deliver. We have seen in the past 23 years that implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Without that, the resolutions will be shelved for future internal battles or until some constituency or grouping decides to push for their immediate implementation.