Ream upon ream of paper will be wasted over the next week analysing the debates and the outcomes of the ANC policy conference. It will all be for nothing. At the heart of the failures of the past 12 years are three key issues: ethical leadership, corruption and political will. The ANC has failed to deal with all of them with the seriousness and vigour required to fix SA.
The ANC has, as usual, emerged from its conference with all sorts of beautiful prose and policies (and boy, those guys can tug at your heart sometimes with their writing, particularly about the “glorious” struggle), but who will implement them? It can beat its chest and pledge to do this or that, but can such promises be achieved when the party’s structures in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal are fighting tooth and nail to have corruption-accused leaders returned to positions of influence and power? How, for example, can the ANC call for stability and the rule of law when half its leaders are perpetually applauding acts of lawlessness and arson, such as the July 2021 riots and the burning down of the parliament building?
The programme of the ANC’s policy conference over the weekend ran to nine pages. The policies to be debated by the various commissions ran to thousands of pages. The delegates arrived in buses from across the country. There was much talk and expectation around the “step aside” rule, which says leaders and members accused of crimes should withdraw from party and government positions until they are cleared.
The same people named and shamed in the Zondo commission’s final report were leading discussions about state-owned enterprises in SA.
What you did not see beforehand, and will not see from the write-ups about the conference, is a serious programme about the deep crisis facing ordinary South Africans today: an economy that is not creating jobs, not growing, that is being torn apart by corruption in government and the private sector. What you will not see is a serious programme to industrialise the country, create jobs, educate skilled workers and turn the negative trajectory around. What you will not see is a serious attempt to cut ties with the thieving ways of the past.
On Thursday the US’s United Airlines announced it had received US department of transportation’s approval to operate nonstop flights from the Washington DC area to Cape Town. The airline will operate the flights three times a week starting November 17. Booking for the Cape Town flight is now available.
I tried to go on the SAA website. It gave me a blank page. After a long while and many attempts at refreshing the page, it gave me some destinations. No flights to or from the US. I wanted to cry. Meanwhile, this weekend, the people who were in charge of SAA — and who brought it to its knees — were leading the debates in the economic commissions of the ANC. I kid you not. The same people named and shamed in the Zondo commission’s final report were leading discussions about state-owned enterprises in SA.
There will be no serious policy or action to reverse the decline of SA if there is no ethical leadership in place. Because of its history and the numerous contradictions of its incumbency over the past 28 years, the ANC is unable to separate itself from corruption. It is in its marrow. Any attempt to unravel it, to push back against it, to remove its claws from the backs of a suffering people, is swiftly defeated by the ANC itself.
The party’s KZN provincial leadership, immediately after its election last weekend, showed us what its priorities are. This is a province which was devastated by the July 2021 riots and the debilitating floods just months ago. Yet, top of the party’s agenda at this week’s policy conference is that the “divisive” step-aside rule should be repealed. The KZN ANC’s provincial conference last weekend agreed on this resolution unanimously.
I have covered ANC policy and elective conferences since the 1990s. The quality of debates and the seriousness about the job at hand have been on the decline since 1997. From the 2007 Polokwane elective conference onwards policy took a backseat. It was all about raw power, about manipulation of institutions to keep the corrupt out of jail and at the feeding trough.
This weekend’s policy conference was very much the same. There is no serious attempt to grapple with the real issues. That is by design. Half, and perhaps more, of the party is really only interested in feeding off the carcass of SA. Their presence at the conference is about staying in power and continuing to loot. The conference, for them, is mere theatre to defeat the few who still hope for renewal of the party.
The war inside the ANC continues. Forget about policy.
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