ANC 'holy cows' emerge

The ruling party promised there would be "no holy cows" and that "everything [would be] on the table" when it reviewed its policies ahead of its policy conference at the end of June.

However, judging by the discussion documents the ANC publicly released on Monday, it would appear there are, indeed, a number of "holy cows" for the 100-year-old party.

In the latest version of its Strategy & Tactics document, titled The Second Transition? - Building a National Democratic Society and The Balance of Forces in 2012, the ANC has left out a number of thorny issues contained in earlier drafts.

Most prominent among these are changes to the country's constitution, mooted in a version of the document presented before the ANC's national executive committee last month.

In that draft, the ANC said the first few years of post-apartheid South Africa were "characterised by a framework and a national consensus that may have been appropriate for a political transition, but has proven inadequate and even inappropriate for a social and economic transformation phase".

It further argued that though the constitution largely encapsulated what the party had stood for over the years, aspects of it were based on "sunset clauses" that had to be included to allay the fears of the then ruling National Party and minority groups.

"There may, therefore, well be elements of the constitution that require review because they may be an impediment to social and economic transformation, such as the narrow mandate of the Reserve Bank or the relationship between, and powers of, different spheres of government," the drafters wrote.

But in the version released for public comment this week, all references to possible constitutional amendments have been removed.

Also excised the discussion document is a potentially provocative debate over the ruling party's relationship with coloured voters.

In the February version, the drafters asked whether - 18 years into democracy - it was still adequate for the party to describe its historical mission as the liberation of "Africans in particular" and "blacks in general".

"There are some in the coloured communities who questioned them being lumped together as part of the 'national minorities' when their socioeconomic profile today remains closer to Africans than to Indians and whites. In addition, the question of origin also comes to bear - with coloureds not seen as African enough [and many in the community not regarding themselves as such] despite many now laying claim to San, Khoi and Nama ancestry."

The drafters further pointed out that the party's electoral support in this community is on a decline.

"Given these trends, the search for explanations must go beyond [the] DA's behaviour in the Western Cape and the ANC's organisational problems in that province," they wrote.

It is unfortunate that the ANC's national executive committee has deemed the two issues to be too sensitive to be openly discussed.

There is clearly some discomfort within sections of the ruling party about the current constitutional arrangement. Very senior ANC and government leaders have, on numerous occasions, expressed similar sentiments as the drafters of the February version about the Constitution hindering transformation.

But, perhaps fearful of a backlash from an increasingly suspicious public, the ANC's national executive committee decided not to open this debate.

Doing so, though, would have been hugely beneficial to both party and country. The ongoing uncertainty about the constitution's future - arising from the criticism of the basic law of the land that keeps coming from certain quarters within the ANC - is unhealthy.

By opening up the debate within its ranks and resolving the issue once and for all, the ANC would have ended all this uncertainty and done us all a great favour.

Another "holy cow", judging by its absence from the discussion documents, is the question related to the quality of ANC leadership.

In its ANC birthday message on January 8, the party's national executive committee promised a review of how internal party elections were to be conducted in future.

"This will protect the ANC from the tyranny of 'slates, factions and money' and ensure that at all times, the organisation is led by the most experienced, most committed, most talented and best collective across generations," it promised.

Despite it being clear to everyone that the lack of new and relevant rules governing how ANC elections are conducted is at the heart of ongoing party squabbles - and the appointment of unsuitable cadres - the ruling party has not seen the wisdom of reviewing its voting process.

There is no greater opportunity than now for the ANC to debate the pros and cons of allowing those who want to stand for party elections to campaign openly for the posts they seek to occupy.

After all, as ANC policy head Jeff Radebe put it on Monday, the period leading up to the June conference should be a "festival of ideas".