"BEE is not properly accounted for," SA Communist Party provincial secretary Jacob Mamabolo said after the party's provincial executive committee (PEC) conference at the weekend.

"It doesn't provide an adequate and thorough analysis of what has been the experience of BEE," he said.

Mamabolo said the SACP saw BEE as a failure, and as a policy which had benefited the elite.

Apart from this, the SACP valued the "second transition" document.

"We support the strategic thrust and content of the 'second transition' [document]," he said.

In the discussion document, called "The Second Transition: Building a national democratic society and the balance of forces in 2012" the ANC suggests entering a second era of democracy focusing on the social and economic transformation of South Africa over the next 30 to 50 years.

Mamabolo said that when it came to economic policy changes, the nationalisation of mines should not be the only item on the agenda.

He also suggested that the steel industry be re-nationalised.

"Steel should be brought back into the hands of the state."

Sasol should be run in a way that would ensure all South Africans could access energy, said Mamabolo.

The PEC also condemned "malicious, slanderous and opportunistic attacks" against leaders of the alliance between the ANC, the SACP and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu).

"An attack on the SA Communist Party is an attack on the ANC and Cosatu," Mamabolo said, but declined to go into detail about the attacks to which he was referring.

Earlier on Sunday, Cosatu said the "second transition" document was filled with contradictions and misconceptions."

"The second transition document fails to locate itself within... [the country's] developments. It exhibits ideological contradictions and misconceptions throughout," it said in a statement.

ANC president Jacob Zuma has promoted the idea of a "second transition", but it has been rejected by the ANC Youth League and the SA Students' Congress, and the ANC in Gauteng and Limpopo.

ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe has also reportedly questioned the idea saying it was packed with "smatterings of Marxist jargon".

The ANC will meet in Midrand for four days starting on Tuesday to discuss 13 policy documents ahead of its national conference in December.

The policy decisions made at the policy conference will be discussed and finalised at the national conference in Mangaung, Free State, in December.

These policies will form the basis for the ANC government's policies, new laws or amended laws.