The phrase "radical economic transformation" entered the ANC's lexicon with the release of its election manifesto. It was not defined or described and the precise context was: “The developmental mandate of state-owned enterprises, development finance institutions (DFIs) and other public agencies will be re-aligned to support radical economic transformation.” (our emphasis). That was it.

Then Pres. Zuma made it a strong theme of his second inaugural address and from there on it has become a standard phrase in ANC and government communications.

Asked at a post-lekgotla news conference what precisely the phrase means, Secretary-general
Gwede Mantashe answered, in effect, “Watch what we do and you will see what we mean ...”

It is now three months later and we have had a lot of declarations of what will be done: the president's State of the Nation speech, ministers’ budget vote speeches to Parliament and, last week, government’s 5-year Medium Term Strategic Framework 2014 – 2019. Putting all this together, we can begin to form an outline of what “radical economic transformation” means.

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Written by political and trend analyst JP Landman