There is total consensus on the report on the ANC's policy document about a second transition, head of policy Jeff Radebe said on Thursday.

"All commissions have accepted the content and the thrust of the document as you know it," Radebe told reporters at the party's national policy conference in Midrand.

However, he said instead of calling the next stage of democracy the "second transition", it would now be called the "second phase of the transition", he said.

Radebe said commissions agreed with the assessment that there had been success since the break from apartheid.

"However, it required a radical shift."

The opening up of challenges facing the country and the triangle of unemployment, poverty and inequality was welcomed, he said.

"There was broad agreement that we are in a transition from apartheid colonialism," Radebe said.

"The second phase of transition must be characterised by more radical policies and a renewal of the ANC and its alliance partners."

The second transition is mooted in ANC policy document as a programme to correct economic imbalances in the country, now that political freedom has been attained.