The African National Congress (ANC) wants the presidency to have stronger powers to drive government policy and control budget resources, according to a Bloomberg report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe presidency must be strengthened as the strategic center of power in the state,\u201d the ruling party said<\/a> in a discussion document released Sunday.<\/p>\n It must drive the \u201cplanning and policy, resource allocation and enforcement,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The party on Sunday officially launched its policy documents for discussion ahead of its policy conference in June.<\/p>\n Widespread corruption, poor performance in government and abuse of organisational processes for personal gain will, if unchecked, lead to the ANC’s demise, the ANC said.<\/p>\n Justice minister and ANC head of policy, Jeff Radebe, gave an overview of the nine documents, touching on organisational renewal, economic and social transformation and legislature and governance.<\/p>\n The policy proposals will only be adopted at its elective policy conference after the branches have engaged with the documents.<\/p>\n ‘Losing the trust of the people’<\/strong><\/p>\n The ANC has admitted that there has been growing special distance between leaders and members.<\/p>\n “The discussion document recognises that the ANC is increasingly losing the trust of the people as illustrated by declining electoral performance and intense public criticism,” Radebe said.<\/p>\n Amidst a heated contest for new leadership, the party is proposing open contestation.<\/p>\n It also proposes an electoral commission that will vet people nominated for positions ahead of elections, to rid the electoral system of gate-keeping and manipulation.<\/p>\n However, it will only come into effect if adopted at the December conference.<\/p>\n The party also proposes that the size of the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) be reduced and more of its leaders must become full-time party functionaries.<\/p>\n “The paper proposes that the size of the NEC should be reduced and that the organisation must limit the number of NEC members that serve in government (65%) and ensuring that ANC leaders are spread throughout all sectors of society,” Radebe said.<\/p>\n Radical economic transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n On economic transformation, the ANC has again reiterated the National Development Plan, which is the blueprint for the country, as the core plan to drive radical social economic transformation.<\/p>\n “At the heart of the discussion document remains the ANC’s call for the second phase of the National Democratic Revolution that requires a more intense focus on the full radical economic transformation of our democracy,” Radebe said.<\/p>\n The ANC acknowledges that it has not done enough to reduce unemployment and poverty and said there is a need for increased wages and broad based ownership and control of the economy.<\/p>\n Some of its proposals include:<\/strong><\/p>\n The ANC has also proposed that the South African Revenue Services (SARS) should be used to recover some of the funds from previous beneficiaries of National Student Financial Aid Scheme.<\/p>\n “SARS processes should be implemented to recover the loan portion of funding provided to working class and middle strata students by 2023,” said the ANC.<\/p>\n With News24<\/a><\/p>\n\n