PHUTI MOSOMANE
ANC national executive committee (NEC) member and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has reassured investors that leadership changes within the ANC would not translate into policy changes.
Addressing the Progressive Business Forum (PBF) breakfast on the side-lines of the ANC national conference at the Nasrec Expo on Tuesday, Godongwana said the governing party had no intention to radically change the current economic policies.
“We have fired all the presidents [Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma before] other than Nelson Mandela. We can’t guarantee that this one [Cyril Ramaphosa] won’t be fired.”
“Key lessons to be learnt is that as a party, unlike in the US, where the policies belong to the president, here the policy belong to the party. Irrespective of the change in government, the party will continue to pursue its policies,” Godongwana said.
Godongwana said whoever emerges as ANC leader after the national conference, that person would have no choice but to implement the policies adopted by conference.
“Whoever wins, will pursue the ANC’s policies. We don’t have people who have policies in their pockets. Maybe there’d be a change of style or emphasis. That happens with any presidential change. You’d see a change in style, not of broad policy.”
While the party’s 54th national conference has resolved on radical policies such as land expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), the ANC under Ramaphosa’s leadership made sure they were watered down to safeguard the South African economy.
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