Undermining the economy, including investor confidence and the currency, as well as greed-driven corruption, are all counter- revolutionary, according to the African National Congress’s draft document on strategy and tactics, prepared for its December conference.
Strategy and Tactics, one of the documents under discussion at the ANC’s recent policy meeting, traditionally defines the organisation’s goals. This year’s document devotes a significant amount of attention to the economy and reveals some ambiguous political thinking, some of which appears at odds with the government’s pragmatic economic direction.
Business showed this week at the truth commission hearings that as a whole, companies will take note of new political realities as long as their role in past economic and political bungles is not questioned; the ANC too seems loath to leave behind all of its historical political baggage. The undermining of investor confidence and the currency as a deliberate counter-revolutionary act, as an example, appears to take no note of the recent remarkable see-sawing of international markets and the dearth of a single bogeyman or ideology to blame it on.
The draft Strategy and Tactics document, written by unnamed key ANC officials, states that: “In the narrow sense, counter- revolution can be defined as a combination of aims and forms of action that are mainly unconstitutional and illegal to subvert transformation.”
Nonetheless, it notes that some counter- revolutionary forces may be loyal to the Constitution and the country’s laws. Economic counter-revolution includes “underground efforts to undermine the country’s economy, including investor confidence and the currency; deliberate acts of corruption driven not merely by greed; sabotage of the programme for delivery; wrecking the government’s information systems and so on. Such efforts can be supplemented by open forms of mobilisation, not least through legislatures and networks in the judiciary, the economy, the media, and other centres of power.”
Given the broad sweep of those claims it would seem that even some Cabinet ministers may be counter-revolutionaries – what does one say about slow housing delivery, for example? Or even the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, which, according to Andrew Levy & Associates, a labour consultancy, could increase labour costs by 18%? The day after the Bill was passed in the National Assembly, the Central Statistical Service noted that a further 25 000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of this year.
As the document notes: “Counter- revolutionary mobilisation can only take root if there are real grievances to exploit, whether these grievances are deliberately engineered or not.”
The discussion document – which will be debated in branches and at the December conference -suggests that these tactics are mainly undertaken by whites and those blacks who were involved in bantustan systems in the past to entrench apartheid privilege. There is the same tired finger- pointing: “The majority of public servants, especially at senior level, the captains of industry, and editorial rooms in which most media shared the perspectives of the former government or its white opposition – are strategically placed to influence the agenda of transformation in favour of the privileged classes.”
The document acknowledges that “it is always tempting for revolutionary organisations in political office to characterise all opposition to their programmes as acts of counter-revolution. Yet … the overwhelming moral and political legitimacy of the new order obliges counter-revolutionary elements to find clandestine and sometimes innocuous ways of subverting transformation.”
While the document notes, correctly, that “in some instances, what is hailed as black empowerment is symbolic and devoid of real substance… some are dictated to by foreign or local big capital on whom they rely for their advancement”, it fails to recognise that what started as black economic empowerment has become an unstoppable economic force of great energy and importance.
What should perhaps fill the ANC with greater concern is the high level of paper- chasing being indulged by many of the new black empowerment companies and in particular some of the union investment companies. The ANC’s natural heirs in the economic forum are primarily involved in businesses that take a wide berth from any job-creation roles.
Towards the end of the 40-page discussion document, the ANC gets back into its governmental stride on economic issues, noting that “economic growth requires the implementation of an industrial policy which ensures more investment in infrastructure, manufacturing of electronic, transport, telecommunications, textile and other goods, efficient commercial agricultural production, eco- tourism and housing construction.
“Government must continually encourage the growth and strategic commitment of investment capital, including private savings, fiscal capital expenditure, investment from public corporations and foreign direct investment. Job creation is critical. Government will intensify public works and broad infrastructural development with the creation of jobs as part of its central focus.”
However, it gives no indication of any vision on how this is to be done. There is not a whisper about tax incentives, or the conclusion reached in the Gauteng Trade and Industrial Strategy released a few months back that wages are too high and the country cannot afford an expensive labour elite at the cost of massive unemployment. Boosting public works projects requires reliable tax collection, which a frustrated Deputy Minister of Finance, Gill Marcus, only last week complained is still not happening. Infrastructural development requires that benefitting communities pay rates – the bankrupt situation of local authorities shows how little this is happening.
In Johannesburg it is clear that neither the corporate sector nor the citizens are paying their way.
The ANC re-affirms its commitment to privatisation: “On a case by case basis, and in consultation with all main roleplayers, some public enterprises will be shed.”
Land-reform programmes will be intensified, as will housing. Community water supply and sanitation projects, the multi-billion rand infrastructure programme, road construction and electrification will receive particular emphasis.
“Safety and security is critical, but … the battle against crime cannot be separated from the war on want.”
This is surprising, because the implication is that most crime is committed by the poor, but government has received enough research from police and intelligence agencies to show that most crime in this country is now controlled by international multi-billion rand syndicates.
Strategy and Tactics notes that the “integration of the Southern African region is critical to bring our joint strengths to bear in the wider world and ensure that the region becomes one of the nodal growth points of the world.
This includes the building of a common market and the promotion of the region as an important investment destination.”
With regard to the civil service, it notes that “where appropriate, the public sector should form partnerships with private companies to bring about efficient, affordable and people-friendly service”.