Zuma on back foot
Allies fail in many policy shifts put forward at ANC conference
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma and his allies came out of the ANC national policy conference weaker and on the retreat. But while the policy conference was a measure of where the stronger power base lay, a lot could change in the less than six months to the national elective conference in December.
In his closing address, Zuma insisted that there were no winners or losers.
But it was clear that his supporters had not succeeded in many policy positions put forward at the conference, which ended at Nasrec, near Soweto, yesterday.
In a week of side squabbles and policy proxy battles for succession, little emerged that provided any real solutions to critical problems facing the country, particularly the economic crisis amid a recession.
Zuma and his allies fought for land expropriation without compensation, changing the mandate of the Reserve Bank, the concept of white monopoly capital and for the party to endorse the Mining Charter.
None of these positions solidified except a recommendation on state ownership of the bank.
Those pushing for changing the mandate of the bank did not seem to understand that this and the bank’s ownership were two different matters.
Zuma’s supporters also kept fighting for their definition of white monopoly capital to be carried in policy proposals after the race dimension was excluded through agreement from nine of 11 commissions.
The president was forced to pull back on the issue of white monopoly capital, after it was defeated by delegates in commissions.
The party agreed instead to retain its current phrase, monopoly capital.
In his closing address, Zuma said it was technically correct in the context of South Africa’s political economy to talk about white monopoly capital.
However, he said, it was also important to lay emphasis on the fact that “monopoly capital is the primary adversary of the collective interests of our people, regardless of its colour”.
The Mining Charter was not endorsed – the party rather resolved that its design had to be reworked, and its effects on employment considered.
Discussions on land also deadlocked, forcing delegates to take two differing proposals to branches for further debate.
Delegates will have until the December conference to reach consensus on whether the constitution should be amended to include expropriation without compensation, or to stick with the legislation, but speed up the relevant processes.
The biggest indication of the weakening of the pro-Zuma faction was the suggestion that whoever loses the ANC presidential race will automatically become deputy president.
This could be seen as due to the Zuma faction’s lack of confidence that the leadership battle will go its way as the December elective conference approaches.
There was also a proposal that the ANC change its constitution to allow for two deputy presidents.
Zuma pushed this proposal and vowed to canvass the support of branch members.
Some delegates shouted their disapproval as he tried to make a case for the changes.
He argued that there had to be a mature and sound way to manage the succession race politically.
It was in the organisational renewal commission that the realignment of electoral processes was discussed, with subcommittee member Febe Potgieter-Gqubule saying delegates wanted such reforms as they had been battling a 19-year-old problem of factionalism. – With Natasha Marrian, Business Day