Exposed: the ANC's secret election plan

ANC party heavies have ordered MPs to rush through legislation that benefits the party before next year's election.

A confidential ANC election strategy document - given to MPs last week - shows just how the party plans to improve its image with voters before the general election.

Among the instructions to the party's MPs are to postpone laws likely to cause controversy or that offend traditional leaders. Legislation must make the ANC look good, the strategy document says.

The document explicitly instructs MPs how to spend the next months in parliament, which bills to ignore and which ones to rush through.

It orders MPs to ignore the six private member's bills currently before parliamentary committees. These, the document says, "will not be prioritised" before parliament shuts down in November for election campaigning.

Instead, seven draft laws have been earmarked for ANC MPs as "necessary for election":

• The Infrastructure Development Bill, which is meant to help the government cut red tape and create jobs through infrastructure projects;
• Four pieces of legislation from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform that are part of a government effort to change land-ownership patterns. Land is considered a ticking time bomb as the ANC approaches its 20th year in power;
• The Public Service and Administration Amendment Bill, which will prevent public servants from doing business with the government; and
• The Gender Empowerment Bill, which will compel government departments and the private sector to fill a minimum of 50% of all senior and top management positions with women.

The strategy document further lays down guidelines for ANC MPs on how to decide on draft legislation. In a 15-point guideline, the party says that:

• Legislation with a significant bearing on the lives of the working class and poor must be prioritised;
• Legislation likely to raise controversy or be used against the ANC in the election campaign should be held over;
• Legislation that is unpopular with the National House of Traditional Leaders must be held over;
• Legislation should enhance the profile of the ANC in the "eyes of the electorate in the run-up to the 2014 elections"; and
• Legislation that furthers the implementation of the Mangaung strategies have to be prioritised.

The election date has not yet been announced. The poll must be held within 90 days of the anniversary of the last election, which was on April 22 2009.

The legislation strategy has been criticised by opposition MPs, who said it was tantamount to a subversion of democratic processes.

An independent political analyst, Ralph Mathekga, said that telling committees to hold back legislation amounted to an abuse of the ANC's majority in parliament.

"I don't think it enhances democracy when legislation is pulled back not because of its content, but just because it's electioneering time. You can't do that," he said.

Opposition MPs said parliament was constituted to be an independent body to hold the government accountable. They also complained that the constitutionally enshrined principle of separation of powers - according to which parliament was not meant to be subservient to the cabinet - had increasingly been eroded because the ANC caucus was not capable of standing up to interfering ministers and Luthuli House heavyweights.

But ANC caucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo said parliament was under pressure to process important laws before the term ended " to ensure that we neither steam-roll these important bills and thereby compromise on the quality, nor compromise on the constitutional obligations of MPs to account to the people" .

He said the strategy document was a confidential plan created as part of a continuing discussion in the ANC caucus and was not meant to frustrate opposition parties.

Democratic Alliance defence spokesman David Maynier said he was disappointed that his bill would be affected. "My private member's bill will break the veil of secrecy surrounding the billions of rands spent on arms deals by the Department of Defence. By not supporting my bill, the ANC will effectively be complicit in opening the door to another arms-deal scandal."

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said opposition MPs would not be bullied by the ANC into rushing laws.

"They have been pussyfooting on a number of bills. [President Jacob] Zuma is hardly in this country and he is not signing some bills that he should have signed a long time ago." He said that it was "clumsy and amateurish" of the ANC to commit obvious political strategies to paper.

Currently, 31 bills are being handled by committees under the main house and 11 are with National Council of Provinces committees. Bills expire if they have not been adopted by parliament at the end of its five-year term.

Parliament and the cabinet have already given the nod to policies that are considered to be sweeteners ahead of the 2014 elections.

Changes to labour-brokering legislation, effectively allowing for people hired under such contracts to become permanent employees after three months - from six - is seen as a way to appease labour federation Cosatu before the polls.

The cabinet also endorsed the proposal of a credit amnesty that will see adverse credit bureau records being expunged.

mkokelis@sundaytimes.co.za mokonet@sundaytimes.co.za