Clear conclusions elusive, bar one

Both the seasoned observer and the novice who followed reports on last week’s meeting of the ruling African National Congress National General Council-meeting (NGC)in Durban will be hard pressed to come up with clear-cut conclusions bar one: President Jacob Zuma came out of the week-long deliberations stronger than he went in.

Zuma’s closing speech carried the mark of a leader apparently in control. On at least two counts he came out the winner: There is now a clear mandate to the leadership of the party to enforce discipline within its structures and nationalisation, especially of the country’s mining industry, for now retains the status of not being policy.

This, however, does not mean that the battles are all something of the past. For that the network of competing and often confusingly overlapping factions, ideologies, centres of power and individual ambitions is far too complex.

Largely driven in a high-profile manner by the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), nationalisation, which before the start of the NGC was one of the battlegrounds identified by most commentators as one of the potentially most explosive, is a good case in point.

The debate saw arch-capitalists like Tokyo Sexwale and Brigette Radebe lining up on the side of Julius Malema and his ANCYL for nationalisation of the mines with the South African Communist Party (surprisingly?) against.

Some commentators even saw this development as an attempt by Sexwale to suck up to the ANCYL in a revival of his ambitions for the top spot as president of the ANC and the country.

This, however, is probably an example of how easily the temptation to create simplified handles on a complex situation can become a trap into misinterpretation. There is indeed good reason to believe that Sexwale and Radebe’s motivation for their stance on this issue is even more tightly linked to personal interest: Nationalisation could be a bailout mechanism for ill-conceived Black Economic Empowerment-deals in the mining industry.

Maybe the SACP are not far off the mark when they warn  that “some versions of nationalisation are wittingly or unwittingly advancing the narrow class-interest of a small BEE capitalist stratum".

The discipline approach in this case also offered the ANC an opportunity to kick this ball for touch until the policy congress in 2012. In affirming the position that the NGC is a review and not a policy-making body, the party has bought itself time to have the issue first studied and recommendations formulated.

In his closing remarks President Zuma said this issue  "is no longer just a Youth League issue,” and the NEC, when it considers the matter, should be "holistic and comprehensive" and "look at existing solutions".

This formulation, combined with the decision on discipline that policy matters have to be discussed within the appropriate party structures, has robbed the ANCYL of its most prominent public platform in recent months. For now the position remains that nationalisation is not ANC or government policy.

By contrast, the debate on the issue of the introduction of a media arbitration tribunal (MAT) went down a different route as it firmly remains on the agenda for introduction via legislation. Unlike the case with nationalisation, a firm policy decision on this was taken at the 2007 conference in Polokwane.

However, in the light of the strong opposition from some quarters within the ANC’s governing alliance and influential individuals close to it and the danger of  costly and image- harming court challenges to the proposed legislation, the NGC has also created some room to manoeuvre for the party. It decided to task parliament to investigate the desirability and feasibility of implementing the proposed MAT to avoid legal challenges that might arise.

It was recommended that if parliament agrees that a MAT is needed, it should be independent of commercial and party-political interference and that it “should act without fear, favour and prejudice'. This represents a considerable toning down from the demands from some provinces that the tribunal should be introduced within six months and in not more than 12 months.

In another clear indication of how difficult the party has found it in recent times to contain and manage the complex competing forces in its midst, it was decided to work on lobbying guidelines that could force national executive committee members to distance themselves publicly from election campaigns waged in their names.

Spokesman Ishmael Mnisi reportedly said the rules will form part of wider guidelines prepared to “deal with members who undermine the organisation when they lobby for positions'. Delegates spoke strongly about dirty lobbying campaigns, and said there was a  need to come up with new measures.

“It will force those vying for positions to publicly denounce such tendencies. If they fail to do so, they might find themselves in contempt of the party rules.”