The African National Congress (ANC) succession battle has loomed large over the party’s policy conference at Gallagher Estate in Midrand despite a call by President Thabo Mbeki for members to remain focused on policy.
At a media briefing on Friday, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe confirmed to reporters that the issue had been strongly on the agenda.
This comes after controversial deputy president Jacob Zuma told a labour meeting in nearby Pretoria on Thursday evening that the conference’s commissions had engaged in ”serious debate” about the organisational design of the ruling party.
Motlanthe said at midday on Friday that delegates did not want to amend the ANC’s constitution for the sake of allowing a particular candidate an easier route to the party’s top job.
However, he stressed that the status of the commissions remained one of ”work in progress” until a plenary session later on Friday.
”There was consensus that the constitution should be altered on this matter only on principle, not on expediency, but it is still being debated,” he said.
”There is a feeling among rapporteurs that, particularly in the commission, they were cautious not to fall into the trap to change the constitution.
”There was consensus not to tamper with the constitution of the ANC to address basically issues of nomination … the constitution should only be amended on the basis of principle, not expedience.”
Motlanthe added that commissions ‒- smaller meetings to discuss specific policy documents — had looked at the options regarding presidential nomination.
”We have consolidated the different views to be presented to a plenary for debate.”
He reiterated that the three options were: That whoever was nominated and elected as president of the ANC should be the candidate of the ANC for the president of South Africa; the national executive committee (NEC) would select the ANC’s candidate for the president of the country at the time of the 2009 election; that the national conference in December elects the leadership of the ANC, simultaneously selecting the ANC candidate for the president of South Africa, therefore determining whether there was a direct link between the two positions or not.
Motlanthe recalled that a situation had once occurred that former president Nelson Mandela had the government’s top office while Thabo Mbeki led the party, effectively creating the ”two centres of power” that is currently a major discussion point.
”We always go through a two-year period of transition … our elective conference is not aligned to the elections of the country.”
The issue of deploying premiers and mayors had also not reached finality, Motlanthe said.
The briefing, based on the ANC’s organisational review, also revealed that delegates at the conference agreed on a 50-50 gender parity in the NEC.
Delegates also accepted a proposal by the ANC Youth League to decrease the age for admission to membership of the organisation from 18 to 16, he told the South African Press Association after the briefing.
Among the 1 500 delegates at the policy conference were technocrats such as engineers and managers whose input would be of a practical nature, said Motlanthe.
”The composition deliberately includes technocrats so that we avoid adopting policies from the heart but for their practical application.”
No swing to the left
There has been no swing to the left at the policy conference, political analyst Professor Susan Booysen said on Friday.
Booysen, who is attached to the University of the Witwatersrand’s school of public and development management, also said the party was keeping its options open for a third term as party leader for President Thabo Mbeki.
She said it was clear from party spokesperson’s announcements on Thursday on the strategy and tactics policy document, which deals with the ANC’s broad socio-economic vision, that there was ”a large amount of status quo emerging”.
”One can argue that in terms of the developmental state, and state intervention in the economy, given that [these issues] are not articulated through this policy conference, it might have additional gravitas and impetus in getting the government to implement more and faster,” she said.
However, when one looked at the details of what was being proposed in issues such as state intervention, regulation and taxation, and given the fact that there was already a broad social security net in South Africa, it was not new.
”This has been state, government, policy practice for sometimes five years, two years in the case of Asgisa, sometimes even a decade.
”So in that context we do not see a surge to the left.”
Booysen said though it had been said Congress of South African Trade Unions delegates were going to come to the policy conference to argue strongly for more radical policies, they ”had not turned the movement around like I believe they had hoped to do”.
She said this had repercussions for the succession issue, as supporters of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma had tried to pin his candidacy for party and national leadership on more left-oriented policies.
”What we have just seen is that the ANC is holding out, so far, a lifeline to a third-term ANC presidency for Thabo Mbeki, arguing that the constitution of the ANC should not be tampered with.
”Currently that constitution does not limit the number of terms that an ANC president can serve.”
She said it was clear from Thursday’s briefing, which was conducted by ANC NEC member Joel Netshitenzhe and South African Communist Party deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin, that the tripartite alliance was seen as a long-term relationship.
It would not be determined by ”mood swings and arguments here and there”.
Netshitenzhe and Cronin were ”singing from the same sheet very strongly”, she said.
”It’s a mutually beneficial relationship, and I think they are going to continue it.” — Sapa