EDITORIAL NOTES
ANC NGC: Let’s discuss the relevant economic issues
This issue of The African Communist coincides with the convening of the ANC’s mid-term National General Council (NGC), involving some 3 000 delegates. NGCs, non-elective meetings with branch-level representation, are designed to unleash a process in which there can be the widest review of progress made since the last national conference in this case the ANC’s 2012 Mangaung national conference. The aim of an NGC is to refine mandates going forward for the ANC and ANC-led government. A critical objective should also be to unite on the ground the ANC and its Alliance around branch-level active programmes of action that help to reinforce our strategic objectives.
As Cde Mcebisi Jonas’s contribution in this issue of The African Communist (“Some thoughts on the ANC’s economic transformation document”) carefully notes, the documentation going into the NGC on the critical issue of our current economic challenges is less than optimal. In fact, the NGC economic transformation discussion document reflects symptomatically many of the internal challenges the ANC currently confronts. Much the same points are made in the initial reflections of Cde Solly Mapaila, the 2nd Deputy General Secretary of the SACP (“On the ANC NGC Economic Transformation Discussion Document: Some Preliminary Reflections”) and Cde Neva Makgetla, a veteran socialist activist linked to the movement.
In the first place, with whom is the “discussion” document in discussion? The document appears to be written by different individuals – either government officials or ANC-connected business-people punting particular interests. As a result, the document is largely focused on specific legal or regulatory changes, and advocacy for more resources from the state, either directly or through increased local procurement. There is also pressure on the private sector to fund specific (private) interests.