Preparations begin in earnest next week for the June policy conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC): the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) holds a special sitting on Monday (27 February 2012) to consider policy documents to be submitted to the conference.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe this week (21 February 2012) met ANC provincial secretaries and heads of NEC subcommittees to fine-tune the policy discussion documents to be submitted to the NEC next week. The documents will then be distributed within the ANC.

The documents cover seven broad policy areas:

•  State intervention in the minerals sector;
•  Economic transformation;
•  Education;
•  Health;
•  Social transformation;
•  International relations; and
•  Peace and stability.

Typically, at this phase of the ANC's decision-making process the documents are structured as discussion papers, providing context and options, rather than arguing one specific policy direction.

An exception is state intervention in the minerals sector (Sims), on which the ANC two years ago commissioned a task team to prepare a report and recommendations. The 600-page document was submitted a fortnight ago (see Southern Africa Report InFocus: SIMS).

Economic transformation

There are two papers on economic transformation. The first outlines a policy framework for economic transformation; the second focuses on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-owned development finance institutions (DFIs).

Discussions on SOEs (parastatals such as Eskom, the SABC and the State IT Agency) and DFIs are likely to be heated, both on the mandates of the entities and on where in the state they should be located.

Powerful voices in the ANC, increasingly impatient with the generally profit-driven (rather than sustainable) SOE and DFI status quo, argue that to achieve the "developmental state" that is at the heart of ANC economic policy, and to belatedly align SOE and DFI operations with state development objectives, requires a complete overhaul of the sectors. They particularly argue for new, development-focused, mandates and new, appropriate governance structures (particularly new board structures).

The debate is complicated by the enormous capital resources on the books of many SOEs and DFIs, and their massive outsourcing budgets. The DFIs (such as the Industrial Development Corporation, the Development Bank of South Africa and the National Empowerment Fund) form the backbone of Pretoria's infrastructure drive and will command huge budgets. Policy changes envisaged will have to navigate the personal economic interests of key ANC leaders linked to big capital and the aspirant black business sector to prevent new policies simply serving to legitimise enrichment of a minority.

The position papers also address how the Presidential Review Committee set up by President Jacob Zuma to rationalise the plethora of SOEs and DFIs interfaces with any changes the ANC proposes for their mandates and governance regimes.

A second complication is continuing disagreement over the organisational location of SOEs and DFIs. While most SOEs currently fall under Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba, several administratively fall under their line ministries - the State Information Technology Agency, for example, falls under the Minister of Public Services and Administration.

Similarly, South Africa's DFIs do not account to a single government entity.

The Sims report further complicates the organisational debate, arguing for a super-ministry to oversee and coordinate all economic activity.

Mantashe insists that, like other discussion papers, the DFI and SOE paper will not commit to a single view. He says the ANC has made a study of best practises globally and would look at examples from economies of scale to help the party decide what the best way forward would be. These are issues that would need to be thrashed out when the 2 000 delegates meet in June.

Peace and stability

The ANC's proposed review of the functioning of the constitutional court and the criminal justice system generally form part of the "peace and stability" discussion.

Mantashe has defended the ANC on the issue and the government's right to initiate a review, saying that transformation necessitates that the power of all courts comes under scrutiny. He insists, however, that any review should be the purview of state institutions rather than of the ANC. Zuma has presided over the government at a time of heightened tension between the executive and the judiciary. The debate on policy changes involving the judiciary and the criminal justice system is likely to increase that tension as several civil society groups challenge the intentions of the ruling party on the proposed review.

The ANC has come under fire from critics arguing the party that first formulated constitutional proposals in favour of supremacy of the constitution now wants to return to the old order dominance of Parliament. While robust engagement between the executive and the judiciary is probably inevitable in a democracy, and may even be desirable, a debate framed by exaggeration and assumption on one side and arrogant defensiveness on the other is unlikely to advance any cause.

Deciding on policy

The NEC may refine and polish discussion papers next week, but decisions on actual policy proposals will only be made by the 2 000 delegates at the policy conference.

These will then be forwarded to the ANC's national conference (its 53rd) in December for adoption or amendment.

From there, they will go to the ANC's 2013 annual July lekgotla, further refined and fed into the process of translating them into government policy and statute.

The ANC plans to use the policy conference as a dry run for the December conference in Mangaung.

For the first time attendance at the national conference will be capped, at 5 000 delegates. Of these, 4 500 seats will go to branch delegates, allocated to provinces in proportion to their audited membership. Auditing to ensure that only delegates from branches in good standing attend the national conference is scheduled between June and August.

The remaining 500 voting delegates will be drawn from the ANC's women's youth and veteran's leagues, military veterans and provincial representatives.