Creating a visualisation of the African National Congress (ANC) National General Congress (NGC) 2015 policy discussion documents reveal what the ruling party is focussing on. A so-called Word Cloud shows that the ruling party is placing great emphasis on developmental issues, addressing government strategies, and looking into national interests.
Reading between the lines, so to speak, one can see that Africa, the public, transformation, and education are also prominent features of the documents.
In its discussion documents, the ANC is very frank about the challenges it faces. It delves into issues such as challenges in the state and in linking between the three spheres of government, as well as how to implement their policies optimally, and words relating to these topics also feature prominently in the word cloud.
The ANC NGC 2015 is taking place between 9 and 12 October, and, according to the party, will be “a platform for critical political engagement” amongst its 3000 participants, 2500 of whom will be delegates representing branches of the ANC and the remaining 500 allocated to the NEC, PEC, ANC Leagues, MKMVA, Alliance, MDM Structures, fraternal organisations, Parliamentary Committee Chairpersons from National Parliament and deployed cadres from government, SOEs and business.
The ANC says: “These documents are intended to guide deliberations and provide a critical assessment of the work done to date. Most importantly they seek that jointly, we may formulate responses to the challenges facing us in our quest to reduce unemployment, inequality and eliminate poverty.”
The NGC does not amend policy, but rather reviews policies and programmes of the ANC.
All the discussion documents, as well as an online facility to comment on them, can be found at www.anc.org.za
– By Christelle du Toit
