A chance to set a different tone

ANC gathering must tackle the tough issues

THE African National Congress’s (ANC’s) national general council, which starts today, is billed as a mere midterm review of the governing party’s progress. It is not intended to make policy decisions or mark the beginning of the leadership succession race, says the party.

Those critical functions are — in theory at least — the preserve of the organisation’s national policy conference, which takes place every five years and is therefore only due in 2017. Yet history paints a different picture.

Past national general councils have been anything but pedestrian affairs.

Five years ago, the ANC was on a bit of a high, having won the 2009 election with an overwhelming mandate. But it was still recovering from the bruising leadership battle that saw Thabo Mbeki forced to resign as party president and the Congress of the People splitting off in disgust. And the then ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema had already fallen out of favour and was challenging the party leadership at every opportunity.

The national general council meeting in 2005 was dominated by Mbeki’s decision to relieve Jacob Zuma of his deputy presidency due to arms deal corruption allegations.

Zuma lobbied hard to be allowed back as deputy president of the party, and the reversal of his resignation gave him the base needed to lead the Polokwane Putsch two years later.

While this weekend’s gathering is likely to seem boring by comparison — the youth league has been tamed since Malema was expelled, and the party has gone to great lengths to suppress any attempt to turn the meeting into a divisive succession debate — that does not mean there will not be plenty going on beneath the surface. In fact, delegates with an instinct for political survival would be well advised to spend their time avoiding being trampled by the elephants that will be milling about the room.

Leadership remains the most obvious issue. As much as the party would like us to believe the contrary, the succession race has begun, as might be expected given that Zuma’s second term as ANC president ends in two years.

The questions of slate politics and the buying of votes have been on the party’s agenda for years, and will undoubtedly be discussed again this weekend. But even though it is clear that weak leadership has cost the ANC its moral authority and seems likely to result in its losing more support before long, this is not likely to be a topic of discussion.

Lip service will be paid to combating corruption, but there is no appetite in the party to change policies that promote the plunder, such as cadre deployment, or to admit mistakes such as the disastrous new visa regulations that are hurting tourism. There will be no introspection over the governing party actively undermining our democratic institutions, or the disastrous effect fraudulent tenders and mismanagement are having on state-owned enterprises’ ability

The economy will not get the attention it deserves, but there will be much pontification and garbled rhetoric

to deliver essential services.

Nor will another of the proverbial elephants, the state of the economy, get the attention it deserves.

There will be much pontification, finger-pointing in the wrong directions and garbled rhetoric extolling the virtues of the National Development Plan and a social contract between the state, business and labour.

Delegates will wax lyrical about how state resources will be redirected to “create” black industrialists and entrepreneurs. But there will be little serious debate on the painful structural reforms that are required to stimulate growth, create jobs and reduce poverty.

We know this because that is the nature of the ANC under the leadership of Zuma. The scope for dissent has been reduced dramatically and replaced by a toxic combination of denialism and rhetoric that is painting the party — and SA — into a corner.