Call for big policy shift exits with Malema

THERE is general consensus that the expulsion of Julius Malema from the ANC will neutralise some of the more radical – and populist – calls for policy change but it will not prevent a move to the left with greater government involvement in the economy.

Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt said yesterday that Malema’s expulsion would neutralise some of the calls for nationalisation and other populist plans. “In the past, the Budget didn’t really reflect ANC policy, but what we see now is an actual move to the left.” This was in contrast to the populist vote-catching positions reflected by Malema.

Among the Malema calls were that up to 60 percent of mining houses be ceded to the state, land be confiscated without compensation and a state bank be established, which could include the takeover of existing commercial banks.

Roodt explained that when Trevor Manuel became finance minister in 1996 his prime job was to gain the trust and respect of the markets and he did not really apply ANC policies.

Now Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had room for more left-leaning policies, such as National Health Insurance.

However, Roodt said he believed the more radical calls for nationalisation would be neutralised by the government’s actual move to the left.

DA Youth national chairwoman Mbali Ntuli said she doubted the ANC would make nationalisation the centre of talks at the upcoming June policy conference. “Malema was the driving force behind (it) in the ANC,” she said.

She noted too that Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu had said it would never happen. “It may feature at the conference but it will not have as much weight as it might have had.”

However, ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the nationalisation debate was not the domain of Malema alone. The debate on nationalisation “continues”, he said.

Econonomists.co.za director Mike Schussler said he did not think talk of nationalisation would die out completely now but that it would slip “into the background”. It would continue at a lower key “but hopefully not at the same noise level”, noting that the debate of the last five years was not good for growing the economy, luring investment or creating jobs.

On the plus side the future looked brighter for businesses, he noted. They had felt under threat from the avalanche of Malema’s collectivisation and nationalisation stances “even though government ministers gave assurances that it was not government policy”.