Business Day
*‘No holy cows’ as ANC reviews policy mix* *Sam Mkokeli, Business Day, Johannesburg, 28 February 2012*POLICY discussions in the African National Congress (ANC) have taken off, with the party expected to walk a fine line between introducing new policies and implementing those agreed on at earlier conferences.
As the party’s top structures put the final touches on the policy documents, attention will focus on whether the ANC will push for radical policies or choose to call for more speedy implementation of the current batch.
Policy head Jeff Radebe says the national executive committee subcommittees handling policy documents were given an instruction to review all the party’s policies. There were "no holy cows" as all the policies were under scrutiny.
The ANC is under pressure to preserve its political credibility among its millions of supporters, some of whom live in poverty despite achieving political freedom in 1994. As a result, policies about redistributing wealth dominate economic policy discussions.
Policy documents would be released to the public and lower structures of the ANC on Monday, Mr Radebe said yesterday.
Some of the policy papers deal with improving the quality of education and providing free access to education, including undergraduate tertiary level.
The ANC would like to make education free up to a first degree, but it wants to research whether this is affordable. Currently, education in public schools is partly free, as there are designated no-fee schools, and schools cannot turn away pupils who cannot pay.
Also, up to the final year of an undergraduate university degree or a diploma, students who receive government-backed loans are refunded when they pass — meaning the loan is converted into a scholarship retrospectively.
The establishment of a media appeals tribunal is also back on the agenda. A party official said yesterday that the ANC wanted to see the implementation of its 2007 resolution about the establishment of the tribunal. The 2010 national general council — a mid-term review meeting — decided that Parliament should pursue the establishment of the tribunal.
Parliament would hold public hearings, and decide on the finer details of the tribunal and its reporting lines. But there has been intense resistance to the idea of the tribunal — with some civil society and media institutions warning that it would be unconstitutional.
On the structure of government, the ANC has been assessing the performance of provincial governments and municipalities. A summit held last year suggested that the structures were not functioning properly. One of the options considered at the summit was scrapping provinces to allow municipalities to be strengthened. But provincial power brokers, who would lose the ability to dispense patronage if the provincial layer were abolished, are opposed to the idea.
One of the options in previous discussion papers was the scrapping of district municipalities as they were ineffective and duplicated local municipal functions.
Mr Radebe said yesterday’s special national executive committee meeting gave its blessing to all of the policy papers, ahead of their release next week. Some of the documents needed some minor editing and improvement, which would be done during the week.
The party’s policy paper on health is expected to give more details about the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI). The 2007 Polokwane conference passed a resolution for the implementation of the ambitious system, which would change the healthcare landscape in SA. However, by the time the 2010 national general council was held, the party had adopted a much more pragmatic approach, saying the scheme would be phased in over the years.
Yesterday, Mr Radebe said there would be no "big bang" announcement and multibillion-rand budget allocations all at once, as the ANC wanted the NHI implemented systematically. But people should not think it had been shelved.
The policy discussions take place at a time when the debate about the ANC’s presidential elections seems to be dying, which would allow for calmer discourse.
The debate on nationalisation has been tied to the election of the president, with the ANC Youth League warning that it would not support any candidate who did not back its call for nationalising the country’s mines. On many levels, this call has been weakened. Its most vocal campaigner, league leader Julius Malema, is fighting for his career and faces suspension from the ANC. Research is also against outright nationalisation.
In his capacity as justice minister, Mr Radebe will today announce the details of the constitutional review proposed by the Cabinet last year. The government’s feelings about the judiciary are likely to dovetail with the policy proposals being worked on by the party’s policy creators.
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