As the discussions at the ANC's 2017 policy conference intensify, one of the controversial policy issues to receive more attention will be media transformation.

Admittedly, transformation has become a stalled cause as noted by Professor Jane Duncan, thereby vindicating to a certain degree the ANC's posture in this regard.

While the elevation of this policy by the ANC is laudable, the manner in which it is pursued may not yield desired outcomes.

It will in fact turn it into a grit coercive rhetoric, which may be covertly resisted by the private sector through ticking of boxes and fronting. This is because of the following reasons: ownership and control and racial focus.

While these elements are critical given the country's history resulting in the ownership and control of media in a few white hands - hence the four conglomerates in the print sector - the significant shareholding currently held by the unions, through their investment vehicles, has shown that mere changes in the racial makeup of ownership and control, and the board's appointment will not automatically bring about meaningful transformation.

Media organisations operate in a capitalist environment, which shape their conduct and behaviour, irrespective of their ownership and control.

Indeed ownership and control is a primary step, but it cannot be transformation in itself. Neither can it automatically result in achieving other elements such as language and content diversity.

These elements have their own complexities and they need different strategies of intervention. This will help in monitoring where progress is being made.

Again the obsession with ownership and control has led to a narrow approach focusing only on the private sector to the exclusion of public institutions such as PanSALB (Pan South African Language Board) and the MDDA (Media Development and Diversity Agency), who equally have a responsibility to develop African languages and media diversity in its various forms.

While transformation has been a fundamental post-apartheid media policy, it has never been clearly defined.

An adjective of radicalism has since been added to it, thus complicating it even further. In the absence of a clear definition, backed up by credible research and regular monitoring, meaningful transformation can only be rhetoric.

Media transformation should be understood for what it is. At times it is used as an instrument to unbundle monopolies.

This is a wrong approach. It is not necessary that monopolies are inimical to transformation. It is quite possible that monopolies can be used as a vehicle to pursue transformation.

Finally, timing is critical in policy making. While media transformation may have been part of SA's democratic path, the sudden noise made around it, compounded by the grit coercion, may be viewed as the ANC's frantic attempt to muzzle the media in view of power shift within and outside the party.

The ANC has been built on the art of ideological persuasion, not coercion, hence its broad church character. Therefore, its success in pushing these kinds of policies through will be determined by its ability to balance the art of persuasion and grit coercion.

Pursuing grit coercion may bring undesired results. Internally, it may bring about policy ambiguity and discord. Externally, it may be alienating to those moderate thinkers who would have been alliance partners in this regard.

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