ANC delegates from KwaZulu-Natal will go to the party’s national policy conference at Gallagher Estate on June 27 armed with a clutch of resolutions seeking, among other things, greater state control of the media and the abolition of the position of ANC national chairperson.
Other resolutions reflect disenchantment with government deployees and sympathy for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
The KwaZulu-Natal ANC notes the lack of diversity in the media, a tendency to ”propagate views contrary to the goals of the development of the country” and an ”unsatisfactory” level of media accountability.
It calls for a strengthening of media regulatory bodies such as the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, the Press Council and the Press OmbudsÂperson. Alarmingly, the resolution states ”these instruments should not be left to industry-led self-regulation, but [they should be] investigated, modified and strengthened to protect civil liberties of individuals against the power of monopoly media”.
Provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu denied that the province wanted to curb media freedom. It was calling for ”those regulations that are fundamental to, and important in, an orderly media dispensation in the country. If certain regulations are required to avoid a situation where media is self-regulatory to the detriment of an orderly media dispensation, you would then make interventions. But not a flood [of regulations].”
Mchunu would not elaborate on the minimum requirements, saying only that the ANC’s objective was ”generally patriotic media, factual in its publication and that is robust in terms of accountability”.
KwaZulu-Natal also calls for the establishment by the state of a National Academy of Journalists, or one facilitated by the state with private sector investment.
He conceded there was a danger that such an institution would produce a pro-ANC bias propagating a particular view. There was a sense that ”at the moment the media is generally negative towards the ANC”, but the concern during discussions in the provincial ANC was not ”that we need a media that supports the ANC” but one that was objective.
”It’s not like people are so worried about it that they feel there is a need for an institution to sway people, it is more a question of ‘Can we have a balanced media?”’ he said.
On KwaZulu-Natal’s call for the abolition of the national chairperson’s post, Mchunu said the position, Âcurrently occupied by Mosiuoa Lekota, had existed in the 1940s and was only recreated in 1991. At that time the party had wanted Nelson Mandela to ascend to the party presidency, while there was a general need to create an honorary position for outgoing president Oliver Tambo, who ”had held the organisation together for decades and decades”.
The move would further consolidate the power of the ANC secretary general, who would take over the function of ensuring that decisions of the national conference are implemented.
Other KwaZulu-Natal resolutions that strengthen the role of the secretary general include making the ANC chief whip in the National Assembly directly accountable to the secretary general’s office; that the secretary general lead an auditing committee to ensure that ANC policy is followed through in government; and that the proposed deployment committee regarding government positions be led by the secretary general.
These, Mchunu said, all reflected a belief that ANC members deployed to government ”should not have an extended mandate” and that there should be more consultation between government and the party to close the gap between the two.
”The feeling is that we are too loose and that the ruling party is only ruling in theory, but in practice it is the ministers and so on. And they want to close that gap.”