Party hails Zuma and rejects President’s reforms and policy proposals

President Thabo Mbeki is losing his grip on the ANC following a series of humiliating defeats at the party’s National General Council meeting in Tshwane this week.

And the man he fired as deputy president two weeks ago has emerged as the poster boy for disaffected party members.

Yesterday, the meeting, which is the party’s second-most -powerful decision-making body, rejected some party reforms it feared would increase Mbeki’s power.

And the council was set to reject economic policy proposals championed by Mbeki, including a move to ease labour laws to make hiring and firing easier.

These policy defeats followed a stunning rout of Mbeki on Thursday, when the council ignored his command that they accept the formal withdrawal from party structures and activities of former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who has been charged with corruption.

The party’s regions decided by an overwhelming seven to two that Zuma, still the ANC’s deputy president, should retain all his political responsibilities within the party — his appearance in court the previous day notwithstanding.

At Thursday’s opening session, delegates loudly sang “Jacob Zuma, my President!” in Mbeki’s face as he sat next to Zuma on the podium.

Mbeki has angered many in the party by appointing provincial premiers and mayors who are not popular in their regions.

Recently, the Free State and Western Cape ANC branches showed their disapproval by snubbing premiers in favour of more popular candidates for the provincial leadership.

One of the proposals rejected yesterday would have created an ANC “electoral commission” to manage these party elections to avoid such conflicts. But the party rejected the proposals, shelving party reform until its 2007 congress, where Mbeki is set to relinquish the presidency.

Zuma’s axing has become a rallying point for those unhappy with Mbeki’s aloofness and centralisation of authority within the party.

One top ANC official said: “What happened this week is bordering on the President losing the confidence of the masses. His grip on the ANC is deeply shaken and is clearly faltering after what happened this week. It slipped out while he was watching. He has lost it.

“He’ll need something very radical to restore his authority and retain it again in the ANC. The irony of it is that he’ll now need Zuma to help him regain that confidence.”

On Friday, delegates urged that the resolutions of the ANC’s 1997 Mafikeng conference, which laid the basis for the extensive powers the ANC presidency now enjoys, be revisited with a view to devolving powers away from the top office.

Mbeki’s far-reaching proposals for redesigning the ANC as a more corporate, modern party, as opposed to a national liberation movement, have now effectively been deferred until 2007 after they were rejected by the provincial structures.

ANC deputy secretary-general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele said yesterday that the powers of the President, premiers and mayors had been reaffirmed by the first two ANC commissions that sat on Friday, but participants said the matter was far from settled.

At the same time, proposals to liberalise labour laws, effectively creating two labour markets, which were being discussed only late yesterday, were also set to be rejected.

Most ANC provinces, along with the party’s Youth League and alliance partners, the SA Communist Party and Cosatu, had lined up against the proposals’ acceptance.

Debates also raged over the high concentration of power within the ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC), a body that manages the day-to-day running of the party but lacks constitutional powers.

National chairman Mosiuoa Lekota confirmed on Friday that the issue of the NWC’s powers was causing concern and was to be debated.

A National Executive Committee official said: “Delegates felt that the NWC, unlike the NEC, is not an elected structure but is appointed by the President. The whole issue here is about the concentration of power; that’s what delegates are worried about.”

He told the Sunday Times that the “whole issue became a handy hanger. The ANC is asserting itself. Power has shifted in a strange way and it will continue to shift.”

The NEC member said he believed people were using the fact that Mbeki would not serve another term to create space.

“Nobody cares about you when you are going out. If I were in his position I would be very worried ... I have never seen such a lot of anger in the movement.”

Yesterday morning, pro-Zuma T-shirts printed by the ANC Youth League and the ANC’s Durban region were being openly distributed outside the National General Council venue, with those involved saying they were preparing for a proposed discussion on discipline around the Zuma issue, which was set to be tabled by the NEC.

Lekota said disciplining of delegates would be left to their regions, branches and provinces, but the Sunday Times has been informed that NEC discussions on disciplinary action are in the pipeline.

Mthembi-Mahanyele said proposals for the organisational redesign of the ANC would not be discussed at length by the general council meeting, but rather referred back to branches for further discussion and redrafting by the party’s secretariat. Full discussion would be deferred to the 2007 national conference.

She denied that the proposals, which include a permanent electoral commission that would manage the party’s election processes, had been rejected by delegates.

One proposal they had endorsed was the introduction of a 50% quota for female representation in the coming local government elections.

With acknowledgements to Paddy Harper, S'thembiso Msomi, Wally Mbhele and the Sunday Times.