Key African National Congress provincial structures are poised to reject two seminal discussion documents at the national general council (NGC) this weekend — a move that could derail ANC president Thabo Mbeki’s ambitions to legislate a dual economy and redesign the ruling party.
Four provinces, which make up more than half the party’s membership, have signalled their intention to give a thumbs-down to policy proposals drawn up by Mbeki’s lieutenants at the party’s Luthuli House headquarters.
This report will be presented at the NGC. The Eastern Cape is ANC heartland and it is the province that accounts for the second-highest number of ANC members.
KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Free State have indicated that they will challenge these documents, either in part or wholly, this weekend. KwaZulu-Natal, with 75 000 members, is the party’s largest province.
The four provinces likely to challenge the headquarters’ policy proposals comprise half the ANC’s membership and pose a serious challenge to Mbeki, who is known to favour a more deregulated labour market.
Development and Underdevelopment, penned by deputy minister of finance Jabu Moleketi and supported by, among others, ANC deputy secretary general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele and head of the presidency Smuts Ngonyama, proposes a dual labour market by easing or eliminating high labour costs and regulations to address the unemployment rate. The document suggests that this should apply to specific sectors including young people, small businesses and certain labour-intensive industries. It also proposes measures to lower the cost of capital.
The Organisational Design of the ANC document proposes a more technocratic ANC with recalcitrant branches and provinces being brought firmly under the control of Luthuli House. The document suggests that the branches — traditionally the party’s most important structure — have lost touch with the principles of the ”national democratic revolution” and have become embroiled in patronage and factionalism. The report suggests a more managerialist ANC: ”Provinces must focus on managing all the centres of power … in this regard the structure of provincial ANC offices must mirror the structural reorganisation that will be effected at head office.”
In addition, the report suggests that the ANC leadership should be allowed to tamper with nominations at the branch and provincial levels, through a permanent electoral commission for the party, to assure representivity in the party.
While Mthembi-Mahanyele denied that the report is calling for a more centralised ANC, the Eastern Cape unanimously disagreed.
”The current organisational design discussion document demobilises lower structures of the ANC by concentrating power and decision-making on the national working committee (NWC) and other higher structures … The ANC should remain a working class biased organisation and the working class should remain the primary [motivational] force,” the provincial council document said.
The Eastern Cape party structures also expressed concern that Luthuli House had ridden roughshod over traditional consultative processes with ANC branches and provinces in formulating the organisational review proposals.
”[We] disapprove of any discussions and the adoption of the discussion document by the NGC and the national executive committee [NEC] until such time that an open and transparent process [takes place], which is going to involve all layers of the organisation,” the provincial council report notes.
This position will be bolstered by the Free State ANC this weekend, which resolved last week to interrogate the suggestion that the NWC be allocated additional power.
It said that the NWC, which is traditionally a secretariat body, already usurps power from the NEC. The Free State also said it would oppose the establishment of the permanent electoral commission.
The Development and Underdevelopment report, which Mthembi-Mahanyele has described as ”imperative”, has also been succinctly rejected by the Eastern Cape, which argues that the proposition that more flexibility will boost employment has very little ”supporting empirical evidence” and ignores the immense negative social impact of atypical work.
The Eastern Cape commission said that while it welcomed the suggestion in the report that the country’s macroeconomic framework needs to be reviewed, this was ”not carried to its logical conclusion”, which would have involved a discussion on the ”extent to which the fiscal and monetary policy enables the state to play a proactive and direct role in the economy.”
Instead, the call for duality will create ”sweatshops in our economy”, said the Eastern Cape commission.
In a move to present an alternative to the dual model at the NGC, the Eastern Cape delegation will propose the establishment of an ”equalisation fund” that will ”resource asset transfers to the second economy to enable wealth accumulation by the poor”.
This would be a national fund that ”focuses on primarily mega projects [such as Coega], targeting particular sectors of the economy and geographic areas,” the Eastern Cape report said.
Gauteng ANC structures are also opposed to the creation of a two-tiered labour system. At its general council meeting two weeks ago, the dominant view was that there was not a need to grant additional exemptions to small businesses because sufficient legislation exists to protect them.
While KwaZulu-Natal was cagey about the specifics of its resolutions that will be presented at the NGC, it indicated that the issue of duality and restructuring the power of the party’s branches ”[would] be fought”.
Watch the NGC for a battleground of people’s power versus the party’s pundits.
More flexible than an elastic band
While the African National Congress top brass is pushing for a formal two-tier labour market, it in fact already exists.
The ANC national general council this weekend will discuss easing or eliminating high labour costs and regulations that limit flexibility on hiring and firing.
A dual labour market ”either for young people, for small businesses or for certain labour-intensive sectors has to be considered given the high unemployment rate, even though this will be very difficult to sell,” a document notes.
Ironically, the entrenchment of a dual labour market is revealed by the government itself; a set of Department of Labour documents suggest that 20% of all employees, or two-million workers, can be described as being in ”atypical” forms of employment (casual and temporary employment).
In essence, this means that one in five South African workers fall out of the country’s labour market regulatory framework. More than 40% of these workers earn less than R500 a month; only one in 10 earn more than R4 500 a month.
”One aspect of the changing world of work has been the declining importance of what is sometimes termed the permanent job, or long-term employment, as opposed to non-standard employment,” say the labour department reports.
Statistics South Africa defines non-standard employment as workers on a fixed-term contract, temporary workers, casual workers and seasonal workers.
This week, the Mail & Guardian interviewed workers who couldn’t be more flexible in their work if they were made of elastic.
Thandi Malikane* works a minimum of 10 hours a day, seven days a week and earns R1 320 a month. She is a live-in domestic as she cannot afford to commute from her house to work daily. Her wages are primarily used to care for the children of her deceased sister.
Malikane says she enjoys working as a domestic worker but the situation has become disheartening. ”They damage my mind,” she says.
Eunice Dhladhla, assistant secretary of the South African Domestic Services and Allied Workers Union, says 90% of domestic workers are disgruntled with their work and that complaints about verbal abuse by employers has, ironically, escalated since 1994.
Michael Mbathe* works 12 hours daily as a security guard for R85 a day.
”Conditions are unfavourable,” says Mbathe, referring to abuse from his manager.
Earlier this month he had to visit his sick mother, but was denied casual leave. He went anyway and now faces disciplinary action and his salary being withheld.
Mbathe explains that employees are not given an opportunity to voice their grievances, adding that, ”security companies are abusing us. I’m sick and tired”.
A sectoral breakdown of survey results presented in the labour department’s documents show that the sectors with the highest proportion of casual workers include: construction (56%), agriculture (30%), wholesale and retail trade (26%), and transport (24%). — Vicki Robinson and Hayley Mueller
* Not their real names. The workers did not want to be identified because they feared victimisation