The ANC needs stronger leadership to referee the intensifying
internal debates ahead of the policy-making conference in September
The policies and programmes of the governing African National Congress will be reviewed at the party's National General Council in Durban on 20-24 September. Few of the policies are original and most are redrafts of old ones. President Jacob Zuma took office in May 2009 at the head of a broad alliance of nationalists, populists, trades unionists, socialists and conservatives. The policy document reflects his style of saying something to try to please everyone, presenting arguments and counter-arguments for particular policies, with none specifically endorsed. The debate will be dominated by factions - on one side the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), and on the other the nationalists, Black Economic Empowerment business interests and populist groupings, including the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).
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