Conspiracy theories are not the crux of the conference

A large number of South African media have defined the African National Congress conference as the culmination of the centralisation of power and the elimination of internal opposition by President Thabo Mbeki and his loyal backers.

This understanding does not assist the public in getting to grips with this significant event, which will chart the political direction for our country over the next five years.

The notion that a conference of this magnitude is purely about elections narrows the discourse required in coming to grips with South Africa’s role as a country, a regional power and a leading partner in Africa’s revival process. The contention of an “elections only conference” confines the local leadership of the ANC to a rather fickle understanding of their party’s historic mission.

It has been argued that the leadership of the ANC under Mbeki has chosen a path that has abandoned any form of mass mobilisation, that is out of sync with the electorate’s needs and panders to the whims of capital. The response to this is simple: the ANC has adopted a pragmatic set of relationships with a variety of global players in an attempt to develop an acceptable role for itself in international affairs. There are few leaders who could have breakfast with President George W Bush, lunch with President Fidel Castro and supper with Yasser Arafat, all on the same day and be praised by all for his endeavours to deal with global problems of terrorism, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) and the Middle East. Our president can.

It is further argued that the adoption of a so-called “neo-liberal agenda” by the government and the wholesale kowtowing to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) has compromised the government and its will to deal with the basic needs of South Africans. The electoral victories of the ANC since 1994 have been phenomenal and analysis shows the support will remain constant for the 2004 elections. Surely the electorate sees value in the incumbent administration and that all cannot be attributed to a poor opposition and to race.

The conference is bound to be a gathering of intensive debate. The issues of contention will be in the realm of service delivery, the economy, the performance of government, the future of Nepad, the role of the ANC, the strength of its structures and its political programme.

In the arena of delivery there will be an effort to ensure that poverty relief programmes are speeded up. It is clear from recent Treasury analysis that the inability to feed the poor is not an inability of political will, but rather a lack of managerial capacity.

On the economy, the revised forecast by the Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel for a 3% growth rate next year will be cautiously welcomed. The improvement in the rand bodes well for achieving the targeted inflation results. An important segment of economic growth is the issue of employment, or the lack thereof within the formal economy. I believe emphasis must be on how to foster a greater sense of entrepreneurism.

The notion that the market is a panacea for all our ills is questionable. However, we must also accept that the state’s ability to deliver in areas beyond its core business is questionable in an environment of global competitiveness. The argument for privatisation must be one that enhances the overall capacity of that institution to deliver the best product at the best price, as beyond that ratio we have no argument for the retention of these industries within the government stable.

It is also useful for us to unpack what the challenges facing the newly elected leadership will be. There can be no debate that Mbeki, Manuel and Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni have proven economists wrong in their forecast of the government’s ability to turn the economy around. The growth, employment and redistribution strategy requirement of 4% to 5% economic growth was vital in staving off recessionary pressures of the economy. The level of dialogue our government has with members of the G8 and the World Bank and IMF must continue. In doing so we must not assume a compromise in our support and effort for the world’s poor.

A conference of this significance cannot be relegated to issues of elections, ultra-leftism and other conspiracy theories. The media has a responsibility to keep debate alive within the context of this conference.

Hoosain Kagee is the national director of the parliamentary support programme at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity

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