Comrade Chair, allow me to raise a point of exigency

Delegates sing during the ANC 5th National Policy Conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre. File photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

Delegates sing during the ANC 5th National Policy Conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre. File photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

Published Jul 9, 2017

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Comrade Chair, I know that you are done with the commissions and the plenary - in fact you have now officially closed the ANC policy conference; but please allow me to raise a point of exigency, from the floor.

No, not that floor, My Leader! The floor from my humble office, where I am hustling like all the others to earn a living. You see, My Leader, I could not make the conference because my credentials were not in order.

Besides, I had my sources who were keen to tweet and update their other social media platforms on the goings-on at the policy conference at Nasrec, including those in those supposedly closed sessions.

I also had the luxury of being able to steal some time from my clients to watch some television to catch up. Normally, you know me My Leader, I would have been watching what is happening on the business and economic landscape across Africa, but South Africa is also in Africa; so grant me this one point of privilege to raise my alarm at what I am told transpired at the policy conference.

In fact I do not believe that my country needs a policy conference in 2017; but more about that later.

Word is out that I was not the only loser in not making it to the conference.

There are those who lost much more. Among others, the concept of "white monopoly capital", which was hoping to crack the revolutionary lexicon of our glorious movement, the African National Congress, went to the commissions but never returned to the plenary.

Erstwhile spindoctor, Mzwanele Manyi, has been peddling this concept on social media for a while now to explain what is wrong with my economy.

In my frustration at not being able to crack that major tender, I was beginning to believe him. So, My Leader, how did this concept not make it? Was it perhaps that erstwhile spindoctor Manyi was simply no match for an even better spindoctor in Joel Netshitenzhe?

What exactly did he mean by: "Nine out of 11 commissions said the phenomenon of monopoly capital is a global one and it manifests itself differently in various parts of the globe and in that context it would therefore not be correct to characterise ours simply as white monopoly capital"?

Perhaps I missed the gist of the argument, because I also happened to be watching the celebrations to commemorate the taking of Kigali - ending the 1994 Genocide - in Rwanda on July 4. Another disturbing headline was from last week in Nigeria, where the widows of the activists executed on trumped-up murder charges in the mid-1990s were still seeking compensation from Shell.

My continent, Africa; it really irritates me because things take too long.

This is particularly true if the point at issue is justice for the underdog, like victims of the Marikana Massacre.

Anyway, back to white monopoly capital failing to join such concepts as "radical economic transformation" and "ANC will self-correct". Is it likely, My Leader, that this outcome had more to do with who stood to benefit politically, rather than whether or not whiteness in South Africa equals undue advantage than blackness, even in 2017?

Could the debate have ended differently if December 2017 was not a factor? Is it incorrect that the majority of black South Africans are still marginalised and whites enjoy the bulk of economic opportunities? Because,

My Leader, if this be the case, may I hazard an explanation with another cliché?

Remember the line: throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

The landless, jobless, disenfranchised masses of our country and the economic reality cannot be sacrificed by a policy debate of a ruling party preoccupied with squabbles to frustrate factions within its ranks.

At any rate, it is not policy conferences we need, My Leader, but the guts to implement all the good policies we have developed since 1994 - such as BBBEE, preferential procurement and employment equity.

* Kgomoeswana is the author of Africa is Open for Business; a media commentator and public speaker on African business affairs, and a weekly columnist for African Independent - Twitter Handle: @VictorAfrica

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

For more #SundayOpinion visit The Sunday Independent website here.

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