A SPECIAL ANC COUNCIL HAS TO BE CALLED
SINCE policy issues were relegated to the back burner at the Eastern Cape elective conference, the new ANC leadership has a duty to call a special Provincial General Council (PGC) to contribute to the policy debate.
The hotly contested conference, where the premier, the re-elected Oscar Mabuyane, went up against former provincial treasurer Babalo Madikizela, had to be extended to a fourth day after a number of delays. Allegations of bribery of delegates, a failed court application to interdict the conference and a prolonged debate on the adoption of credentials on Sunday meant that there was no space to discuss critical policy issues that the province would take to the national conference in December.
Policy discussions at ANC conferences are critical because they would become government policy if the ANC wins the 2024 general election. The South African government is grappling with policy uncertainty that has led to much-needed foreign investors staying away. The ANC, as a governing party, needs to pay special attention to these critical issues. Clear economic policies are urgently needed to tackle spiralling unemployment, job creation, crime, rural development and land reform.
Apart from the formulation of policies, delegates at these conferences need to discuss the importance of strengthening the capacity of the state to implement policies. This is particularly significant since South Africa does not suffer a paucity of policy documents, policy positions and pronouncements. It is often said that our problem is not the absence of policies, but rather the implementation of policies.
These are all the “burning issues” we had hoped that delegates at these gatherings would be fixating on, instead of spending all their energy contesting for leadership positions.
Since the Eastern Cape conference has come and gone, we hope that the new leadership of Mabuyane that emerged from this process will have the foresight to call for a PGC to give special attention to policy issues.
It is also our hope that other provinces of the ANC that are still going to hold their elective conferences, such as KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, will give special attention to important policy debates. This is very important for the future of the country.