A discussion document towards the National Policy Conference, Version 6.0 as amended by the Special NEC 27 February 2012

The 53rd ANC National Conference in 2012 will be required, like all national conferences, to review progress with regards to our strategic objectives, review our policies, assess the state of our organisation, and elect the national leadership. During its hundred-year existence the ANC has held fifty-two such national conferences. Each addressed the above issues, but a few among them stand out as watershed conferences – because of the nature of decisions taken, their signaling of major strategic and organisational shifts and in the process taking the struggle to higher levels. The founding conference of 1912, the 1949 conference that adopted the Programme of Action, and the 1969 Morogoro consultative conference come to mind. What makes for a watershed conference is usually determined in hindsight, by future generations looking back at particular events and how they impacted on subsequent developments in the country.