The African National Congress (ANC) policy conference was nearly thrown into turmoil on Wednesday when the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) questioned the credentials of those attending, insisting the matter be resolved before the agenda for the conference was adopted.
The ANCYL has accused a group of people, led by President Thabo Mbeki, of deliberately excluding ordinary branch-level ANC members from this week’s policy conference in favour of government technocrats, to ensure there would be no major shifts in current government policies.
Most visible at the conference were national government ministers, provincial ministers, mayors, directors general and heads of parastatals.
Despite widespread criticism of current policies from within the party, the ANC’s draft documents, which were penned by the party’s top brass, represent no major policy changes.
The ruling party’s macro-economic policies have been subjected to criticism, particularly from its alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), which blame them for the high level of unemployment in the country.
The ANCYL’s discontent with the types of delegates invited to the policy conference came into the open on Wednesday when they refused to adopt the conference programme during the open session until they were provided with a full list of invitees. ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota said the matter would be addressed during closed sessions.
Youth league leaders who spoke to the Mail & Guardian this week on condition of anonymity said they believed most grassroots members were left out so that a particular faction’s agenda would prevail. This grouping, according to the sources, also wanted to ensure that the incidents that occurred at the party’s national general council (NGC) in 2005 were not repeated.
At the NGC, delegates unhappy with the treatment of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma sang anti-Mbeki songs and rejected most of the policy proposals that came from his leadership.
”There was definitely a deliberate attempt to increase the number of people who will support the agenda. They know they were going to be dealt with,” said a source who supports Zuma in the succession battle.
However, senior ANC leader Joel Netshitenzhe said those who were raising the concern about delegation were afraid of losing the debate. He added that the ANC had no policy dictating how delegates should be selected to attend a policy conference.
Although the country has experienced high economic growth in past years, observers say this has not translated into employment growth. Cosatu and the SACP believe the fruits of democracy and economic growth have benefited the elite and white capital at the expense of the poor working class.
The ANCYL believes that unemployment and poverty levels in the country will not change if the ANC does not engage with its grassroots members.
”The problem is ordinary members are not given sufficient time to engage on policy issues. The ANCYL is of the view that policy issues are supposed to be directed by the ideological position of the ANC, not the government.
”We thought the DGs [directors general] would come here as resource persons, to provide information on what the government was doing. Now it would seem they did not only come here in their capacity as DGs, but as ANC delegates.”
The league also believes that the inclusion of so many government delegates will limit the scope of the discussions.
”The other problem is that part of the documents have been drafted by these people. If you read the documents carefully, they only reflect what is available in government. If the party wants to make a serious leap we can’t be talking about things that are contained in those discussion documents. They are very shallow.”
The youth-league leaders said if their objection was overruled they would look to the national conference in December to correct whatever ”damage” resulted from the current policy conference.
The conference has powers to make resolutions, but these can only be formalised as policy by the national conference.