Battle for the ANC’s soul on upcoming party lists

CAPE TOWN — Bolstering a command economy seems to be at the heart of the ANC’s election manifesto with its emphasis on more social security spending, accelerating EWC Constitutional amendment, the NHI, and enabling State-owned companies to acquire banking licences. Exactly how it plans to create 275,000 new jobs over the next five years and encourage foreign investment as Ramaphosa straddles the policy/ideological -economic revival divide, is anybody’s guess. While most analysts are predicting a comfortable 60% ANC majority in the May elections, perhaps the most telling indicator of the intrinsic ruling party weakness is the sight of Ramaphosa and Zuma together on the hustings in KwaZulu-Natal this past weekend. It’s a public show of jovial unity that fools none but the most die-hard traditional ANC supporters, given the wider context of Zuma’s trial and multiple pending probes, plus the considerable gravy-train support he still commands. A decade of corrupt patronage is not easily forgotten, especially among beneficiaries. Expect the sparks to fly around the provincial and national ANC nomination lists. That’ll be the true test of party unity. – Chris Bateman

By Sam Mkokeli, Amogelang Mbatha and Paul Vecchiatto

(Bloomberg) – South Africa’s ruling party pledged to create jobs, implement pro-growth policies and speed implementation of plans to seize land without compensation as President Cyril Ramaphosa seeks to woo voters ahead of national elections in May.

In a stadium filled to capacity with at least 80,000 supporters, the ANC pledged to create 275,000 new jobs annually over the next five years when the party unveiled its election manifesto and celebrated its 107-year anniversary Saturday in the eastern port city of Durban.

“At the centre of our manifesto is a plan to create many more jobs and ensure that all workers can earn a decent living,” Ramaphosa said Saturday. The party also pledged to accelerate its land reform program by amending the country’s laws to allow for land seizures.

“The ANC will support the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution to clearly define the conditions under which expropriation of land without compensation can take place,” it said in its manifesto. “This should be done in a way that promotes economic development, agricultural production and food security.”

The party also promised to make comprehensive social security cover a major priority.

Too many people are unemployed, particularly among the youth, and too many jobs are lowly paid and insecure,” Ramaphosa told African National Congress members at a dinner on Friday, a day before the release of the party’s election manifesto. “Our manifesto is about transforming the economy to serve all people.”

The ANC decided in late 2017 that land seizures should be permitted to address racially skewed ownership patterns dating back to apartheid and colonial rule, and the president indicated that both urban properties and farmland will be targeted. New policies will also be introduced to promote small and medium-sized businesses and stop large companies from dominating industries, he said.

While South Africa emerged from its first recession in almost a decade in the third quarter, its economic prospects remain bleak. The growth rate hasn’t exceeded 2% since 2013 and the unemployment rate stands at 27%. A lack of jobs ranks among the electorate’s main gripes.

The 107-year-old ANC has monopolised power since white minority rule ended in 1994. The party has been scrambling to regain the trust of some of its supporters alienated by former President Jacob Zuma’s scandal-marred rule. It’s made some headway since Ramaphosa replaced Zuma as party leader in December 2017 and as president two months later, with opinion polls indicating it should win about 60% of the vote.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that factionalism and patronage had diminished the ability of the ANC to lead the process of transformation. “We must acknowledge that state capture and corruption have weakened several of our public institutions, undermined effective governance and contributed to the poor performance of our economy,” he said. State capture is a local term for the use of political connections to secure appointment of allies to key state posts and win contracts.

“I will always vote ANC,” said Goodwill Gumede, a 68-year-old retired teacher from Pietermaritzburg, the capital of the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. “The problems are there, but it’s the only party I can trust to correct itself and steer South Africa to prosperity. They only need to sort out their divisions.”

Ramaphosa and other top ANC leaders have spent the past week crisscrossing KwaZulu-Natal to drum up support, and try and convince the ANC faithful that a rift caused by a power struggle between a party faction allied to Ramaphosa and another that backs Zuma is a thing of the past. The two men have appeared side-by-side at party events, joking and exchanging pleasantries.

Despite the display of bonhomie, there are no signs of an end to hostilities, with members of the rival groups at loggerheads over who is nominated to represent the ANC in parliament and the nine provincial legislatures. Zuma is among those who’ve been put up as a candidate lawmaker, a post that would ordinarily be seen as below the status of a former head of state. He’s hasn’t said whether he would accept nomination.

“Zuma and Ramaphosa will come and go, what we have been taught is that the ANC is bigger than all of us,” Dakota Legoete, the party’s acting spokesman, said in an interview. “Unity is compulsory for all of us, no matter how aggrieved you are, no matter how dissatisfied you are or what reservations you have about the ANC.”

Investment drive

A former labour union leader who helped negotiate an end to apartheid and led the drafting of the country’s first democratic constitution, Ramaphosa, 66, needs the ANC to maintain a united front to win a solid mandate that would let him drive through policies aimed at reviving the flagging economy and attracting $100bn in new investment.

Zuma, 76, could be looking to retain political clout to beat a possible jail sentence, should he be convicted on charges of taking bribes from arms dealers in the 1990s.

“At the moment the issue of unity is all important for the ANC. They know that when voters perceive that there are factions within the party, they don’t go out and support it,” said Zwelethu Jolobe, a political science lecturer at the University of Cape Town. “A lot will depend if the ANC is able to manage its lawmaker nomination lists in a civil manner and that all the internal factions believe they have sufficient people on those lists.”

These are some of the ANC’s other main election pledges:

  • Expanding the country’s R150bn ($11bn) social security system.
  • Implementing a long-delayed national health insurance system.
  • Stepping up the fight against corruption.
  • Providing more low-cost housing.
  • To amend the law to enable state-owned companies to acquire banking licenses.
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