Land set to dominate conference
ANC POLICY TRIGGER
THE land question has made a dramatic return to the political discourse in South Africa as the ruling ANC readies for its policy conference on Tuesday.
Presumably land, as a national capital asset, will predicate the discourse on economic transformation.
As to whether its dramatic entry will be matched by an equally triumphant conclusion at the end of the conference remains to be seen.
It must be understood though that the real effect of the policy pronouncement on the land question will only be felt after the equally anticipated elective conference in Mangaung, Free State, in December.
This will be when the newly elected party leadership will show the courage of its convictions by instructing policy makers in government to implement the policy conference’s decisions on land.
It has been exciting and encouraging to see the enthusiasm with which senior ANC leaders have recently been speaking about land as an inalienable asset of the people.
At the same time, what has emerged is the seeming disjuncture about what different elements in the party and alliance partners interpret this position to be.
As strange as this might sound, this is a healthy position to begin such a weighty matter as the debate on the land question and the concomitant spin-off relating to economic transformation.
These include the debate on nationalisation, not in its hitherto projected narrow sense as the control of such natural assets as mineral resources, national banks like the Reserve Bank and monopoly industries, but a new perspective of how to restructure and rebuild a thriving inclusive economy.
In my opinion, it is far better that the conference ends with more questions than answers, if this is the result of a no-holds-barred approach to the debates.
Therefore, if there is one yoke the ANC would do well to discard, it would be to yank off from the belaboured necks of its delegates the malaise of group-think.
The importance for its delegates to robustly lock horns in substantive, intellectual engagement cannot be over-emphasised.
Delegates need to demonstrate that they have a full understanding of the implications of their decisions on the economy.
Using concepts like land as a tool for economic transformation is complicated. It might be even harder to implement this concept in the form of legislation.
The Constitution already stands guard over individual rights to land ownership.
To make meaningful progress on any of the fundamental issues that will make any decent outcomes on transforming the economy possible, the ANC must have a clearly defined and intellectually sound argument to amend the Constitution.
Yet, having moved the mountain, the party might find even greater and more intellectually impossible questions emerging.
The economy is firmly in the hands of white capital.
Its ethos is essentially the apartheid doctrine and today it still stands on lofty pillars made possible by the laws of theft, the expropriation of the very soul of black people and the conquest of their land, minerals and all material possessions.
The question is, while the apartheid regime acted with impunity, can a democratic and morally accountable state act with the requisite political will and even think of formulating policies and strategies that will turn around the apartheid economic juggernaut?
The one clear outcome of the conference will be ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe jumping off the fence to lead a school of thought opposed to president Jacob Zuma’s Second Transition proposal.
It was fortuitous that the Zuma enclave posited this concept because Motlanthe had been struggling to find his voice and his footing until now.
At least the great divide at the conference will be on a quasi intellectual, perhaps ideological precept, as opposed to the banal and personality driven circus of Polokwane in 2007.
Such outcome gives little comfort though, to the expected strength of character needed by whomever will emerge as the new ANC leader after Mangaung to lead the nation in the quest to truly deliver full freedom to our people – completing the political emancipation that’s inextricably linked to social transformation and economic self- determination.