The ANC is exceptionally unpredictable and does not conduct itself like other political parties in the country. When it comes to political strategy and tactics, the ruling party prefers to keep its cards close to its chest.
Recently the ruling party held and concluded its watershed National General Council (NGC) which was held in Midrand, Gauteng.
The penultimate task of the NGC is to critique the party’s policies and assess the overall service delivery trends in government.
The NGC also debated, extensively, the institutional performance of government departments, municipalities and parastatals. That extensive debate was practically centred on the strategic performance of the party’s senior deployees in government. The NGC identified specific departments and municipalities which are evidently failing to actualise and advance service delivery.
It is also the mandate of the NGC to redefine the party’s macro-political direction and also reassert its international relations trajectory. The NGC also confirmed and consolidated the party’s historic and diplomatic relations with other liberation movements in Africa.
That NGC was characterised by high morale, discipline, resoluteness and commitment to organisational tasks and purposes. Many people and multiple media agencies expected that gathering to be marred by chaos, ill-discipline and factional contests.
Contrary to popular expectations, the NGC was conducted amid organisational discipline and a sense of revolutionary purpose.
ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, used his disciplinarian stature to make the NGC stick to its constitutional mandate and objectives. Mantashe is a strict disciplinarian who is fond of demanding revolutionary discipline and morality from party members. He made it clear that factions, especially the notorious “Premier League”, will not hijack and derail the purpose of the NGC.
Those who attended the NGC with the intension to indulge in a succession debate were disappointed. Mantashe boldly instructed all delegates to stay clear of any divisive tendencies and factional rhetoric.
Under Mantashe’s swift decisiveness, the NGC conducted its political business without experiencing any factional disruptions or disturbances. The recent tranquil NGC was a profound departure from the disruptive and faction-riddled NGCs of 2005 and 2010.
Delegates at the NGC debated an array of discussion documents and mooted legislative frameworks. The most critically charged discussion documents were centred on balance of forces: economic development, rural development, land reform, education, health, science and technology.
The discussion document on “balance of forces” seeks to critique both the internal and external challenges that are confronting our society. Delegates were generally and extremely unimpressed with the technical performance of municipalities and some parastatals. Judging by successive annual reports of the Auditor-General, government departments are performing far better than the municipalities. Parliament must amend the Municipal Systems Act and Municipal Structures Act and resultantly repeal the current modus operandi of our municipalities.
The institutional design and modus operandi of municipalities should begin to mirror that of government departments and parastatals.
Look out for part two in next week’s edition.
Elvis Masoga
Political Analyst
