African National Congress (ANC) delegates attending the party’s policy conference at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Gauteng, agreed there is still a need for the tripartite alliance, national executive committee member Joel Netshitenzhe told reporters on Thursday.
He said delegates agreed that the alliance should be made up of the social movement, trade-union movement and the revolution movement.
The delegates also agreed that South Africa should be a developmental state that should create an industry that absorbs labour. The developmental state should be underpinned by democracy with a social content.
On the issue of monopoly capital, the commission agreed that there are negative aspects of monopoly capital, such as the undermining of competition and resistance to black economic empowerment policies. It said certain regulations should be put in place to make it socially beneficial.
South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande on Wednesday rejected a suggestion that President Thabo Mbeki had in his conference opening address issued a warning to the left wing in the tripartite alliance.
”No, he can’t do that. In any case, we have come for a debate here,” he said. ”It can’t be a decree, so that’s why we do not take it as a decree. But he was sharpening the debate around the matter, which we welcome.”
He said Mbeki had been correctly stating the historical relationship of the SACP and the ANC, which the SACP has always accepted. ”He’s reaffirming the alliance, and … that the ANC won’t stand in the way of the SACP’s pursuance of the struggle for socialism. We think that is very important.”
On Thursday morning, debates at the policy conference were being held in the dark after a power failure. A security guard said that generators were powering electricity in one area of the venue. However, on the other side, delegates discussed policy matters in the dark.
There were varying responses earlier on Thursday from delegates who had attended conference ”commissions” to discuss the party’s strategy and tactics document.
A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said there were different views from most of the delegates at the commission he attended, but they had all agreed that poverty, not monopoly capital, was the enemy.
”You can’t say capital is the enemy when you want to eradicate poverty,” said the delegate, from KwaDukuza. ”In order to create opportunities you need capital,” he said.
Delivering a presentation on different proposals from ANC branches on the document on Wednesday, Netshitenzhe had told the conference that KwaZulu-Natal had proposed that monopoly capital was an enemy of the national democratic revolution.
Marketplace
Fiery red SACP T-shirts selling for R50 were the hottest commodity on sale outside the conference on Thursday. Bold green, black and gold ANC colours lined tables on a grassway outside the main hall of the venue. ANC paraphernalia lay beside bright red caps with embossed images of Argentinian-born revolutionary Che Guevara.
Hawker Calvin Mothapo said his hottest-selling item was the SACP T-shirt, followed closed by Cuban shirts that he insisted were imported directly from the South American country.
A tiny table covered with books displayed an array of newly released hardcovers, including George Bizos’s Odyssey to Freedom and some classic paperbacks such as Steve Biko’s I Write What I Like.
”That Fit to Govern is selling well; I brought 30 copies and have eight left,” said Ronme Vuner, selling yet another copy of Ronald Suresh Roberts’s controversial biography of President Thabo Mbeki.
Taking a break from the arduous work of debating policy, delegates strolled around the many tables. Few walked off empty-handed.
Mpumalanga delegate Violet Siwela purchased additional ANC-style winter gear for her stay in Johannesburg. ”It’s cold. I need more warm things,” she said.
Moeketsi Mosthadi bought an ANC tracksuit that he said was hard to come by at his home in the Free State. On the robust sales of SACP items, he said: ”We are an alliance. There is nothing wrong with that.” — Sapa