By Neelam Rahim

All eyes are on the ANC holding its policy conference at Nasrec, expected to end on Sunday. The party had to scramble before the start of the meeting after staffers who had not been paid for two months threatened to disrupt proceedings. In the run-up to the conference, the ANC detailed its action plan to respond to damning allegations of corruption against several high-profile politicians.

Radio Islam International discusses the conference with political analyst Roland Hanwood. 

Does the ANC policy conference mean anything anymore? Some would argue that they talk a lot about policy, don’t implement too much, and the policy conference is almost like a precursor to the elective conference. It’s about the different fractions using the conference like a proxy battle. 

According to Roland, that is where the importance of this conference lay in the sense of attention that will be given to policy discussions and which will be the critical policy discussion or will this be a testing ground to see who has got the apprehend and how that would play out in the December conference. 

He says a virtual conference; the question now is what the delegators and leaders do with this conference.

Most of the issue is around the step aside rule and whether there will be a significant push at this policy conference for that rule to be changed.

According to Roland, there is quite a lot on the agenda, starting from the economic policy, which in his mind, should dominate the discussion. 

He says the reality in South Africa is known in terms of poor economic performance, massive unemployment and everything that centres on those challenges. 

The consequences of the Zondo Report for the ANC as government and the ANC as a political party will be significant. He added that this should come up in the discussion and tie up to the many other issues raised.

Roland further tells Radio Islam this is a discussion in preparation for the conference at the end of the year, which is not only about the leadership. However, that dominates the procedures often in the minds of people. 

That conference is where the ANC will finalise its policy position as a party. He added that also impact the government for the next five years. 

Listen to the full interview on Radio Islam’s podcast below.