The African National Congress begins an 11-day national consultative conference to review its programme and methods this Sunday, June 16, the anniversary of the Soweto uprisings.
About two hundred delegates, some allegedly from its internal underground, are to attend the conference. The ANC has refused to say where the conference is being held, except that it is “somewhere in Southern Africa”.
It is due to end on June 26, the anniversary of the adoption in 1955 of the Freedom Charter by the ANC and other members of the Congress Alliance. Sources have predicted that basic ANC strategy will not change, but tactics and methods will be closely examined.
It is the second national consultative conference held by the ANC since it was outlawed in 1960. The last one was held in 1969 at Morogoro, Tanzania.
The ANC is expected to formally open its internal ranks organisation and national executive committe to coloureds, Indians and whites.
ANC sources say they expect the movement to come out in favour of a more clear cut leadership role in national liberation politics for the black working class.