The relationship that exists is that of cooperation, for big companies to invest in South Africa, create jobs and give people the skills.
The ANC policy conference rejected the use of ‘white monopoly capital’ to describe the problems in the economy.
National executive committee member Joel Netshitenzhe said nine of its eleven commissions at the policy conference agreed after intense discussions on the “reality of white dominance” in the economy but then felt the use of ‘white monopoly capital’ was incorrect.
Netshitenzhe addressed journalists after plenary on Tuesday night after commission had concluded their business and said that the relationship that exists between the African National Congress and capital as well as monopoly capital is that of unity, cooperation and contestation as per their 2007 Polokwane resolution.
“With regard to the strategic goals of the ANC there was the issue that was raised about how in simply terms we can characterise this National Democratic Society,” Netshitenzhe said.
“The agreement as reflected in the draft [is that] the closest that society can be equated to across the globe would be a combination of a developmental state that leads in ensuring very high rates of growth but secondly combined with a social democratic state that ensures re-distribution of resources in favour of the poor,” he said.
“There are areas in which we seek to cooperate with them… higher rates of investment, job creation and skilling of people,” the NEC member said.
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“There is no reference to monopoly capital as an enemy of the ANC or of the National Democratic Movement. If they were the enemy, what do you do to the enemy? You destroy the enemy and so with our approach to monopoly capital, there might be areas of divergence, we need to regulate, and you need to discipline them where it is necessary,” Netshitenzhe told journalists.
He was briefing them on what the Strategy and Tactics commission discussed at the party’s 5th national policy conference in Nasrec, Soweto.
“In that context, it would therefore not be correct to characterise ours simply as white monopoly capital. That relationship would apply whether it’s Japanese, Indian, white or whatever category you can think about,” he said.
The proposal to force the policy conference to declare ‘white monopoly capital’ as an enemy of the ANC revolution is believed to have been brought by Mpumalanga, North West, Free State and KZN as well as the ANCYL and ANCWL but rejected by Gauteng, Limpopo, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
Netshitenzhe added that the ANC cannot run way from the reality of white dominance in the economy, “in the context of assets, income of the professions as well as other privileges that we have inherited from the past”.
Meanwhile, North West ANC chairman Supra Mahumapelo said that ANC leaders briefing media on plenary recommendations but confuse them with commission resolutions is wrong.
“That is against the spirit in which as ANC we deal with issues, issues that come from commissions, regions, provinces they get to be tabled in plenary. As soon as they are tabled in plenary you no longer talk commissions because now they are deposited into plenary,” Mahumapelo said.
(edited by ZK)
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