Durban - The failure of ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and the party’s leadership to implement the Nasrec resolutions has led to the centre not holding as policies that deal with economic transformation “have been left to stagnate”.
Party sources said these issues would be dealt with at the crucial elective conference in December with questions expected to be raised on why only the contentious step-aside policy was prioritised and implemented.
At its 2017 conference, the ANC resolved that members facing allegations of corruption and crime must step aside. Last year, Ramaphosa said leaders charged with corruption and wrongdoing must voluntarily step aside within 30 days or risk being suspended.
Critics of the current ANC leadership, under the stewardship of Ramaphosa, said the party had failed at implementing policies aimed at radically transforming peoples’ lives and to transform these resolutions into programmes.
The proponents of radical economic transformation (RET) in the party, said that the stagnation on the issue of the transformation of the economy through policies on land reform and the use of state banks to promote economic development had left branch delegates frustrated and created a trust deficit between them and the party leadership.
“Many of the delegates who will go to the December conference know that the party leadership is not interested in implementing the policies meant to transform society. The party leadership has failed to account for the lack of implementation of these policies and there is a serious trust deficit that exists.
“The truth is that many black people still cannot get access to finance and the conditions that prevented them from getting access to the economy are the same, if not worse, than those that existed five years ago.”
Another source said that both the RET forces, and the “Taliban” who are part of the group that won the KZN provincial ANC conference, were hoping that more progress would have been made on the land issue and the State Bank in-between conferences.
In a report published after the 54th conference in 2017, the party said it was committed to addressing the historical injustice of land dispossessions by pursuing land expropriation without compensation as a matter of policy.
The report also stressed that the state must develop a more effective programme to ensure access to, and ownership of, financial institutions by black people, youth and women.
Lobbyists for former health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma say the leadership vacuum needs to be filled.
Mkhize, in a viral video, said: “Our window of opportunity to correct mistakes of the past and re-energise our movement is rapidly closing. We cannot afford another five years of deeply factionalised and directionless leadership. We must act decisively to save the ANC.”
Dlamini Zuma has denounced the step-aside rule as unjust, saying it should be amended at the ANC conference.
“Where the problem lies is that the country’s laws say we are innocent until we are proven guilty. The law of the ANC almost says we are guilty until proven innocent. The problem with step aside is that you are charged, and then you step aside, but three years on, you are still waiting for the trial to start. What kind of justice is that?” Dlamini Zuma questioned in an interview.
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said the failure to implement conference resolutions was deliberate and it is the president of the party who sets the agenda.