Karima Brown
4 November 2009
Johannesburg — THE African National Congress (ANC) yesterday emphatically said it had no intention of nationalising SA mines, saying no party leader would "make policy pronouncements" based on "sentiment" .
No fewer than three leaders of the ruling party, including secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom , have spoken out publicly against nationalising mines.
Both Motlanthe and Hanekom used public addresses to clarify the party's position. Motlanthe addressed the Chamber of Mines annual general meeting on Monday night, while Hanekom was the keynote speaker at the MINE-Tech International 2009 conference and exhibition in Johannesburg .
But it was ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe - who addressed a media briefing yesterday in Johannesburg after a meeting of the party's national working committee - who was unequivocal.
"There is no such decision in the ANC to nationalise the mines in SA," Mantashe said.
His comments come amid a debate fuelled primarily by the ANC Youth League, which has been agitating in favour of nationalisation. The league has champion ed the issue in recent months, calling on its supporters not to back leaders who were "against" the Freedom Charter, which the league uses as its cornerstone document in the nationalisation fracas.
But Mantashe laid down the law yesterday, effectively silencing the youth league. "No leader of the ANC, including comrade (ANC treasurer- general) Mathews Phosa, will make policy pronouncements based on sentiments. We will base our public pronouncements on policy positions and resolutions taken by the ANC constitutional structures."
Mantashe said those in the tripartite alliance who invoked the Freedom Charter to support their claims did so out of ignorance.
"The Freedom Charter, which is an ANC document, does not say anything about the nationalisation of the mines. It speaks to the mineral wealth beneath the soil. Our existing law speaks to mineral deposits reverting to the state," he said.
The ANC has been at pains to reassure investors that it has no plans to take ownership of privately owned mines.
Last week Phosa told European business people that the ANC was committed to "conservative" economic policies that did not include nationalisation.
Phosa told his foreign audience that while the ANC noted the "noise" the international community had heard over nationalisation, the party would stay the course and proceed with its prudent macroeconomic policy trajectory under President Jacob Zuma 's leadership.
Soon after that, Phosa came in for a scathing attack from the Gauteng provincial chapter of the Young Communist League, which called him a "golden boy of imperial and white monopoly capital dominance". Yesterday Mantashe chastised the Young Communist League, saying that "personalised" attacks were a sure way to kill debate.
The matter was going to be debated between the ANC and its leftist allies ahead of the upcoming alliance summit, Mantashe said.
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