 ‘Rising left’ a fairy tale of ANC’s regional barons Anthony Butler, Business Day, Certain African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) members — the kind from whom one should not buy a used car — have been peddling fairy tales in recent weeks about the “growing dominance” of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African Communist Party (SACP) in the affairs of the liberation movement. In reality, the representatives of the proletariat are as enfeebled and outnumbered as ever. How then have they provoked the right’s bully-boys to pick on them in this unseemly way? The accepted wisdom is that the right abhors what the left optimistically describes as its “alternative economic policies”. President Jacob Zuma ’s appointment of Ebrahim Patel as economic development minister raised high expectations on this score. Patel’s portfolio ominously came without buildings or staff, and it has recently transpired that it also came without any real authority. Planning and monitoring ministers Trevor Manuel and Collins Chabane have cannibalised the old Presidency staffs, seconded market-oriented officials, and forged ahead with their “new” — but in fact Mbeki-era — vision of a strong centre. Now Black Management Forum leader Jimmy Manyi has agreed to apportion a share of his talents to running the Department of Labour. Little wonder cynics on the left suspect conservative sabotage is again in play. Things are little better at trade and industry. There are theoretical and historical grounds to believe industrial policy can, in principle, act as the developmental motor of the state. But there are far stronger grounds to believe that this incapacitated department cannot play such a role in practice today. The left’s most important proposals address social security and national health insurance. Technically and politically difficult reforms are envisaged, and enthusiasm for them is about to nosedive. This is not because the Treasury remains dominant or because there are intractable managerial and human resources challenges in the health system — although both of these propositions are true. Rather it is because of a dramatic deterioration in SA’s fiscal position, the precariousness of which is expected to be brought home in next week’s medium-term budget. As a result of the deeper than expected recession, this year’s budget deficit may reach 7% or even 8% of gross domestic product. The left is fully aware that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan cannot significantly increase taxation. The government is meanwhile committed to major infrastructure expenditures, to public service pay increases (for which Cosatu itself must take the blame), and to social programmes that are untouchable ahead of local government elections. Gordhan has no choice but to rule out any wider role for the state until control has been re-established over expenditure trends. If there is no coherent leftist economic project on the immediate horizon, what has provoked ANC conservatives to attack? The threats that Cosatu and the SACP currently pose to their foes concern politics rather than economic policy. Cosatu remains a stubborn defender of the democracy it did so much to bring about. It has been a voice of reasoned opposition to controversial government decisions about HIV/AIDS, As succession clouds gather , familiar and unpalatable political dynamics are beginning to unfold. Some ministers are contemplating how to secure more compliant news media, and the state’s instruments of persecution and selective prosecution have fallen once again into potentially factionalist hands. The manipulation of social conservatism and shoot-to-kill populism may be the harbingers of a renewed politics of demonisation. The reasoning left, and all others who oppose the ambitions of contenders for power, might once again soon face bruising attacks. Cosatu and SACP leaders’ longstanding and prescient focus on the evils of corruption and patronage is also earning them fresh animosity. Immense inefficiency and waste results from improperly conducted state procurement and licensing. Growing turmoil in local government can be traced to the corruption and cronyism that underpin local tenders and municipal appointments. Coalitions of tender-fuelled ANC mafias and patronage networks, most visibly from When the left’s leaders assert that careerism and corruption are the central challenges facing the ANC and SA , they appear to mean it. There may come a time in future when contestation over economic policy will seriously pit the left against the Treasury and conservative Presidency ministers. For now, however, left and right may be working more or less together in an unlikely alliance to insulate national institutions — and the ANC’s own NEC — from the destructive influence of assertive and acquisitive regional barons. · From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=84355 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- |
