The South African Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) on Wednesday released a publication titled ‘Trajectories for Africa’, in response to the ANC National General Council 2005 discussion documents, which, if adopted, are expected to have significant implications for South Africa’s socioeconomic and political development.

The book is a compilation of commentaries on the discussion documents by leading South African and African academics and analysts, under the auspices of, and commissioned by, the CPS.

The commentary is structured along the lines of the three discussion documents, which are titled: ‘Development and Underdevelopment’, ‘The National Question’ and ‘Unity and Diversity in the ANC’, respectively.

With regard to the Development and Underdevelopment document, the CPS publication tackles two key themes: the need for a ‘post-Growth Employment and Redistribution (Gear)’ macroeconomic policy in South Africa, and the so-called ‘developmental’ state in the country.

Iraj Abedian, CE of Pan-African Investment & Research and one of the original authors of the Gear policy, writes that the policy, while “long past its sell-by date” has remained South Africa’s prevailing economic policy framework by default, to the detriment of the country.

While applauding the ruling party for initiating a national debate on the issue, he cautions that it is important to understand that South Africa in 2005 has a very different macrofinancial landscape to ten years ago, and that the issues, as they are now, should be understood and dealt with.

Key measures he advocates include lowering the cost of capital and assessing the effective cost of labour, the productivity of public investment and the efficacy of public-service delivery.

He says that a post-Gear economic policy must, “engage with the factors that lead to the expansion of business, the management skills in the public sector, the rising employability of youths and the ability of the economy to sustain its relative global resilience”.

In his article on the economic policy debate, CPS research manager Omano Edigheji questions whether, as is claimed by the ANC documents, South Africa is in fact in a ‘developmental’ state, and criticises the way the document draws comparisons with other developmental nations.

He lists several ‘key institutional themes’ which should be tackled if South Africa is to be regarded as developmental, drawn from the experiences of other nations, particularly in East Asia.

However, he emphasises that that if lessons are to be learnt from other States they must be holistic, which he does not believe is the case in the discussion documents.

He concludes that the reforms offered in the discussion document are insubstantial and that South Africa is in need rather of comprehensive reforms, which he argues should be structured as an industrial policy.

The national question

The second theme in ‘Trajectories for Africa’ tackles what the ANC terms the ‘national question’, or the implementation of a ‘united, nonracial, nonsexist and democratic’ society, as described in the Freedom Charter.

Here, the contributors to the CPS publication are unanimous that this issue should be engaged with from a class perspective rather than a race angle adopted by the ANC.

Professor Devan Pillay argues that all conflicts can be traced to a “scramble for resources” and that the issues to be redressed in achieving national unity are therefore not political, but economic.

The publication is bitingly critical of the way the ANC has engaged with the so-called national question.

“The ANC complains, as if powerlessly, that the question remains an issue, but seems in denial or unaware of its responsibility and influence as the ruling party,” Edigheji said yesterday.

Pillay conceded that the documents made mention of the danger that, in attempting to achieve redress through racial classifications, race categories may become frozen into the socioeconomic framework for the country.

However, after presenting the problem, solutions are neither offered nor solicited.

Also present at the launch, academic Sipho Seephe said that the discussion documents repeat what is already widely known, but do not present any new solutions or insights.

He also voiced concern over the emerging equation whereby, “commitment to nonracialism is directly proportionate to support for the ANC”.

ANC must deal with unity threats

Edigheji pointed out that it was important to note that the two commentators on the third NGC discussion document, ‘Unity and Diversity in the ANC’, both write with authority, “situated within the cadres of the ANC”.

Independent political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi writes that, although the ANC document assumes that there are no pressing threats to internal party unity, a more realistic assessment is that assumption of power by the party brought with it new challenges to party unity and cohesion at all levels of the movement.

This observation becomes all the more pertinent after the events of the last two weeks, surrounding the ousting of ex-deputy President Jacob Zuma and the divided reactions from the increasingly-materialising intraparty factions.

Echoing other contributors, Matshiqi suggests that, “control over scarce economic resources or access thereto are becoming the underlying threat to ANC unity”.

In conclusion, BusinessMap director Khehla Shabane writes that leadership is critical to the continued prosperity of the ANC.

He suggests that the current leadership (read President Thabo Mbeki) seems to be the driver of ANC policies, with other party members content to remain dormant in the policy-shaping process.

Shabane challenges the ANC to facilitate cohesion by confronting the challenge of ensuring that the leadership is neither hemmed in, nor given free rein in the shaping of policy.

However, the ANC said this week that the upcoming NGC will not focus on leadership matters, but will look instead at key policy matters such as economic-development issues and the reorganisation of the party.