The SACP is part of the ANC’s tripartite alliance.
The party’s General Secretary, Solly Mapaila, says they will recommend the alliance adopt strategies for the creation of a public banking institution at the ANC policy conference underway at Nasarec, south of Johannesburg.
Mapaila says the state should not be begging for development money from other financial institutions. Meanwhile, another ANC affiliate, COSATU, wants the conference to adopt policies that favour the working class.
The triparty alliance partners attending the ANC policy conference want the party to adopt policies that are people-centered. The SACP has reiterated its stance that the Reserve Bank’s mandate be changed to foster economic growth.
Mapaila says banks loot money from people and want the government to forge ahead with its plans to establish a governed bank.
“The banks are much less about them than about ourselves, and we have called for the establishment of a public banking system. You can have Gauteng, for instance, having its own national bank, Municipalities and metro’s having their own banks. Because in the context of a country focusing on feared money, in other words, paper money, money that is not paired to any critical minerals, like gold or platinum, that we have. “The banking system is organised capital looting world-wide,” says Mapaila.
SACP also wants state-owned enterprises (SOEs) recapitalised rather than sold to the private sector. He criticised Eskom for extending hours of load shedding in the country’s townships.
“When the people have no electricity, they don’t call corporations, they call government, so we need to take full responsibility and re-capitalise Eskom in a manner we can discuss with society so we are accountable for the actions we have taken ourselves. Because we still believe these are issues that will still require engagements post this policy conference within the framework of the Alliance,” says Mapaila.
Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi says the federation wants the ANC policy conference to adapt policies that favour collective bargaining and the working class. She criticised the ANC led government for failure to pay its workers- while ministers and senior office barriers have received their three percent wage increases.
“We have as a federation noted as a federation that there is a growing and sustained attack on collective bargaining, including by the employers of the state. Therefore, the federation comes to this conference not just to sharpen these issues but to ensure that there is a strong working class bias both inside and in the policies and implemented by the government of the ANC,” says Losi.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa says the governing party will spend a great deal of time finding solutions and practical solutions for Eskom’s debt crisis.
The president has announced the scrapping of controls on companies generating their own power as well as plans to allow households to generate solar power and sell it back into the grid.
“Examining what has been done thus far and coming up with practical solutions and comrade including solutions where e come up with bright ideas on how for instance how we can solve Eskom’s 400 billion debt burden. COSATU has come up with proposals in this regard, which we have also put forward at NEDLAC,” says Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa hopes a comprehensive set of actions to deal with corruption and state capture will be raised for adoption. He has urged delegates at the conference to come up with ideas and policies that could turn things around by correcting mistakes and short-comings for the party.
The conference will examine the National Health Insurance. Resolutions from the policy conference will be adopted in December during the party’s 55th national conference. The party’s policy direction will determine the fate of the movement in the coming year
6th ANC’s National National Policy Conference: 29 July 2022
