MAVERICK BUSINESS: Rating agencies are likely looking for changes larger than South Africa’s political system can deliver

The ANC has slightly belatedly released its list of parliamentary candidates. What does the list tell us about the ANC’s economic policy agenda? Depressingly, not much.

In some ways, this is unsurprising. Parliament is not where ANC economic policy is actually formulated, although where it actually is formulated is something of a riddle in itself. Political analysts say the party has struggled to create anything the looks like an overarching policy agenda, partly because unanimity within the party on economic policy doesn’t really exist, so it is difficult to discuss in any real way.

The graphic illustration is the inclusion of Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, who, according to a witness speaking under oath at a government commission of inquiry, received piles of gifts, including R50,000 a month, for 14 years, from a private company doing business with the government.

A host of political commentators have pointed out the obvious hypocrisy from an ethical standpoint, but the reappearance of these candidates suggests something else, too, from an economic point of view: A kind of gravitational, institutional inertia within the party. According to one analyst, the ANC is an extremely hierarchical organisation despite its avowedly democratic, socialist outlook.

Wits School of Governance professor Susan Booysen says the ANC candidate list is something of a “copy and paste” exercise from the ANC’s National Executive Committee, selected at its 2017 elective conference. Ramaphosa won the leadership battle by a mere 179 votes, suggesting the candidate list effectively incorporates the battles of the Nasrec conference into the body of Parliament.

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