Johannesburg — THE African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee yesterday backed Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel to chair the controversial National Planning Commission (NPC).

This appears to be a compromise after a counter-option emerged last week to significantly reduce Manuel's role and have President Jacob Zuma chair the proposed commission.

That was drawn up by the party's economic transformation committee, which includes leaders of the tripartite alliance.

The ANC yesterday largely endorsed the role and design of the commission as set out in a green paper written by Manuel, but with changes.

"The commission will be chaired by the minister responsible for the NPC in the Presidency," ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said at a media briefing after a three-day National Executive Committee meeting.

The decision is likely to be debated fiercely at a meeting this weekend of the ANC and its leftist allies, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).

Cosatu has accused Manuel of accumulating too much power through the commission as set out in his green paper. The finer details on how the NPC will relate to cluster ministries will be crafted at the weekend meeting.

Mantashe was sanguine, saying the alliance partners would be amenable. "(The) alliance, as members, participate in the economic transformation committee of the ANC, so they are not going to be surprised," Mantashe said when asked if the proposal on the NPC restoring Manuel's role would be a non-negotiable issue at the summit.

Meanwhile, Manuel stuck to his guns in Parliament yesterday on the composition of the commission. He said the representative model supported by labour would lead to deal-making and bargaining, and this did not work well in a planning context.

Similarly, making the commission a collection of Cabinet ministers would also lead to deal- making and competition for turf.

Manuel distanced himself from the notion that the commission should be a largely academic body, saying "it would be easier to herd cats" than to get decisions out of a commission of 20 professors. He also appealed for the select committee to trust the proposals in the green paper so that "we can get this show on the road".

Manuel said he was afraid that if Parliament delayed the matter until April next year, final approval could be delayed until 2011, when there were local government elections, which would further delay the setting up of the commission.

"I am pleading for the support of Parliament," he said.

The ANC met Cosatu and the SACP separately yesterday to iron out "areas of irritation" ahead of the weekend summit. This was to ensure that difficult issues were sorted out to avert deadlocks.

There have been public disagreements in the alliance on economic policy and the planning commission. The ANC wants the commission to consist of a panel of experts, not chairmen and chairwomen of ministerial clusters.

The rationale for this is to ensure that "turf wars" between Cabinet ministers do not follow them to the NPC, which is meant to drive the implementation of policy.

Mantashe said that differences could sometimes lead to a lack of focus on planning. The role and function of line function ministers, how they related to the NPC and how it in turn related to whoever drove economic policy development, would also be clarified at the summit.

The trade union federation has been vocal about the pre-eminent role that it wants Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel to play, and it is likely to put up a fight for his ministry to be intimately involved in the work of the NPC, especially on economic planning targets.

With Wyndham Hartley