KARIMA BROWN
Published: 2010/04/19
businessday

PLANNED African National Congress (ANC) disciplinary action against youth league leader Julius Malema will top the political agenda this week, presenting the party’s leadership with a stern test of its resolve.



The national working committee meets every Monday and (ANC) and President Jacob Zuma is also today to meet the league’s national working committee at its request.

The meetings come as disciplinary action against Malema gather gathers pace. He faces four charges, which include defying the leadership and bringing the party into disrepute. While the meeting of ANC officials is generally a closed affair, the brass will be keen to put forward a united front on Malema .

Malema’s relationship with the ANC’s top six and the league’s continued interaction with Zuma is significant for a number of reasons.

Moreover, a standoff between the two men will also provide some insight into the balance of forces in the ruling party and the tripartite alliance ahead of its elective conference in 2012.

The manner in which Zuma handles the Malema matter is likely to provide clues as to just how stable the ANC is at present and whether Zuma in his decision to take on Malema can command and count on the support of his officials.

Any sign of division at the top will signal that Zuma is vulnerable and can be challenged on the issue of Malema in other forums such as the party’s national executive committee meeting and its national working committee.

Parliament this week also sees several committees meeting with deliberations on the government’s Industrial Policy Action Plan, likely to evoke interesting responses especially as the committee recently held extensive hearings involving industr y, with many sectors pushing their own interests. It will be interesting to see which direction the committee takes. The committee has already come out strongly in support of more funding for the Industrial Development Corporation, which now accounts to the Department of Economic Development .

Other committees to watch out for include the portfolio committee on energy and rural development and land reform.

The ANC’s investment arm, Chancellor House, facilitated the deal between power utility Eskom and Hitachi Africa, to manufacture boilers for the proposed Medupi power station, from which the ANC stands to make an estimated R1bn tax-free profit.

This issue is likely to overshadow debates around how best to ensure energy security.

Discussions on the Agri BEE charter will also see opposition parties going for the government’s stance on commercial farming.

Opposition parties and the government are often at loggerheads on how best to proceed on meeting the country’s food security needs and to balance greater equity in the Agri sector.

While the ANC is battling to put out fires in its own backyard, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which just held two provincial conferences in Bloemfontein and Gauteng, will concentrate on portfolio committee work in Parliament for the coming week. The DA has been a vocal opponent of the ANC on the World Bank’s Eskom loan.

The Independent Democrats (ID) plans to push ahead with its campaign to shine a light on the ANC’s investment company Chancellor House in view of the drama relating to its stake in Hitachi Africa. While the ANC has yet to clarify whether its investment arm will indeed pull out of the deal, the ID’s Steve Otter said “we will step up efforts to open the whole process up to see where else there could have been a conflict of interest,” meaning that the opposition will push hard for opening up the ruling party’s links to companies which benefit from state tenders. Otto said the ID plans to put forward proposals on party funding. “Judging from the comments from ANC ministers, we believe a new proposal regarding party funding will resonate not only in the opposition but also among ANC members of the house.”

While the ANC’s power battles among factions often dominate headlines, the now smaller Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) also faces internal wrangling ahead of its elective conference next month . Two IFP districts, Ulundi and Johannesburg , are expected to hold their conferences later this week in preparation for the party’s elective conference.

Discussions at the conference are expected to be dominated by whether Mangosuthu Buthelezi must continue leading the party or hand over the baton to a younger leader. A certain group in the youth brigade is calling for change and has nominated former Zululand mayor Zanele Magwaza-Msibi as its preferred candidate.