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MAKING CONTACT: President Jacob Zuma greets former police boss Bheki Cele at the ANC's policy conference being held in Midrand. The president's bid for backing for the 'Second Transition' document did not receive the support he was hoping for from party delegates.PHOTO: Mohau Mofokeng

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Sowetan understands that the dominant view among delegates was that the concept was "unclear", "inconsistent" and that its analysis would fail to achieve its purpose.

The voices of those who were in support of the document, which explains the thinking behind the thesis - including Zuma's - were drowned out during commission discussions over the past two days in Midrand.

The majority of ANC members, representing various provinces, charged that the authors of the document, titled "Strategy and Tactics: Second Transition", should come up with something different.

They said the document was flawed and would change the ANC's character. Some argued that transition meant moving from one ideology to another and that the document was unclear on what it wanted to achieve.

Delegates were also critical of its analysis, saying it would not resolve the problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment, which still exists 18 years into democracy.

Zuma has in the past weeks - ahead of the policy conference - been trying to garner support for the transition document, saying it was the only way. It maintains that the ANC has achieved political freedom and should therefore now move to economic transition.

Sowetan understands that the problem for many delegates was particularly the wording of the draft proposal, with delegates telling its defeated drafters that it "didn't make sense". Some said the concept "appeared out of nowhere".

There were also concerns over the way in which the paper was presented - with the view it was trying to impose a socialist agenda.

There was, however, consensus that radical changes, as stated by the president in his political report on Tuesday, were necessary to tackle problems to improve the lives of South Africans struggling to make a living.

There was a proposal that the party refer back to its 2007 paper on strategy and tactics, compiled in a vastly different global climate.

It appears that proponents of the paper miscalculated the delegates' response, believing that the draft policy would receive full support.

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Nhlabathih@sowetan.co.za

Comments

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Sun May 19 22:51:57 SAST 2013 ::

Jun 28, 2012

guiliano

Why are hearing about this document now, where has it been all along?
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Jun 28, 2012

Nys1

Moer Ntate o bareng ke Zuma”AKA Spear” ke Tsotsi man ....As I see Him face n read about him on daily basis ...ke mo tlhoya le go feta....
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Jun 28, 2012

MGEEZ

The majority of ANC members, representing various provinces, charged that the authors of the document, titled "Strategy and Tactics: Second Transition", should come up with something different.
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More like they should leave the office; because clearly what ever they come up with and no matter how different it can be it will still be useless!!
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Jun 28, 2012

Mellow

it would not resolve the problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment, which still exists 18 years into democracy.
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zuma failed and will continue to fail the nation for as long as he's given power, this 2nd transition is not the solution to our current problems and yes we sitting with a lot of them while they are gathering at Midrand and chowing our hard earned money doing fokkol, ppl arent stupid of course this doc is a load of bull$hit who should really suppoert it?
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Jun 28, 2012

idiothater2

Zuma(showerman) has nothing to offer the ANC(let alone the country). People were warned that this village idiot knows nothing,but they still voted him
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Jun 28, 2012

RVP

Eish...Shower-head must not become president again...
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Jun 28, 2012

MicaParis

''Delegates were also critical of its analysis, saying it would not resolve the problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment, which still exists 18 years into democracy''. The delegates are wright, this is just another intellectual mind set lobbying for ANC to instill shallow grounded thinking to the General Electorate to believe that they deserve another chance as they might be aught to be seen to be doing something about poverty, economic inequality and unemployment. As soon as they get another tenure in Office it will be just business as usual and in 5 years time another term will be given to the very same document. We consulted all the previous strategy documents like GEAR, RDP, BEE and ASKISA all of them failed because of two ''Killer'' catalysts which are Corruption and Wrong implementation strategy. Another concepts such as Nepotism, Comradeship and Illiteracy just put the final nail in the coffin. When will the ANC ever listen and open their tight gate to the majority of liberal citizens out there who can save the Organisation and the country out of the hands of the Mafias and Sex addicts, exactly yes!, if Comrades were good on dealing with Corruption and Wrong Cadreship Deployment the way they are addicted to sex and stealing money I am telling you South Africa will be a very better place, because those are the things Comrades can do and are very good at, from Lethuli House, Presidency down to the Local Municipalities they are all the same, their main two principles are stealing money and having sex! We work with this Comrades people we know them, some of us even help to organize nice chicks for the Masters as they fear public exposure so that we can in turn keep our nice jobs!! It is very tough out there Lord have mercy on us. Comrades keep the faith Allutta Continua, ANC is falling slowly like a Giant weakling ill elephant, watch the space!!
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Jun 28, 2012

idiothater2

@MicaParis
Corruption was to be expected.The ANC elected someone with 783 charges of corruption to be its president.
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Jun 28, 2012

Dolls

i really do not care about who be comes the president. i will never vote again in my life. people will go and vote and we will all get serviced by this stupid ANC government.
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Jun 28, 2012

RobinH

I find the tendency of the current ANC brass to create these wonderful sounding names for supposed initiatives as rallying points around empty shells. Alas, they succeed all too well with the less sophisticated of our people, who, unfortunately, make up a majority. It smells exactly like the final years of Mao's rule in China. The last gasps of a dying regime.
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