General: ANC, not government, in charge

At Monday’s media briefing on a recent ANC national executive committee lekgotla, secretary-general Ace Magashule read from notes largely duplicated in a media statement posted yesterday on the ruling party website. Interestingly, however, the statement’s rather telling closing paragraph did not feature in Magashule’s briefing. Pam Saxby, for Legalbrief Policy Watch, suggests it may have been prompted by widespread speculation about possible tension between President Jacob Zuma and ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.

‘The actions of government must, at all times, affirm the ANC as (SA’s) strategic centre of power with authority over the state,’ the statement notes. ‘The ANC has never been uncertain about (the) policy instruments it should employ … to achieve … (its) objectives’. With that in mind, ‘cadres deployed in government’ should be ‘diligent’ in arriving at a thorough understanding of the party’s position on ‘any given matter’ and ‘propagating’ it.

Against that backdrop, the lekgotla resolved to develop ‘within eight months’ a ‘clear accountability framework’ for all ANC members ‘operating in the state’. ‘The … framework is expected to include provisions for enforcement and consequence management where cadres do not perform as expected.’ The ANC will also build its capacity for giving policy direction to elected representatives and monitoring compliance.