The ANC has given a brief overview of the planned direction of its policy conference – including new political offices in Parliament, and giving the president more power in government.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a><\/strong> issued on Sunday, the party said that the complexities of governing across three spheres of government, and state-owned companies, the ‘strategic center of power’ should be with the presidency.<\/p>\n “The Presidency must be strengthened to drive the implementation of the NDP (National Development Plan), align planning and policy, resource allocation and enforcement,” the party said.<\/p>\n “The aim here is to improve the alignment and integration of policies and development across the spheres and sectors of government.”<\/p>\n Shifting more power into the hands of the presidency is not entirely new, however – In August 2016<\/a><\/strong>, the government set up the Presidential State Owned Companies (SOCs) Coordinating Council, which gives president Jacob Zuma ‘strategic oversight’ of the country’s SOEs.<\/p>\n The ANC now wants this power extended to the provincial level as well.<\/p>\n To achieve this, the ANC wants to establish a Presidential commission on provinces, which will “review the alignment of powers of functions of all three spheres of government”, with a specific focus on provincial roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n In the same statement, the ANC acknowledged the country’s deepening corruption crisis, including the extent that corruption has taken root within the public sectors and SOEs.<\/p>\n The party argued that the only way to address this crisis is to review and restructure government so that it can be unified in direction across all spheres.<\/p>\n In addition to this, the party wants to introduce new political offices to Parliament, to “strengthen its instutional structure”.<\/p>\n One such new role is a “chief whip of Parliament”, the party said.<\/p>\n