'Step-aside rule' in the spotlight as ANC gathers for policy conference

The rule has been the subject of much debate among ANC members in the run-up to the national policy conference in Nasrec this weekend.

More than 6 000 delegates from the ANC are expected to attend the conference.  

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, which is the party's biggest province, has already said it wants the policy consigned to the dustbin of history.

The policy says members charged with corruption must voluntarily step aside.

"It cannot happen it this consultative conference, but there can be proposals about changing it later on, but there will be heated discussions," says Venter.

"Those policies in the document that they are going to discuss, they all stand subjective to the strategy, tactics, and balance of forces document of the ANC."

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"That is the policy bible of the ANC, and all these policies must in some way or another support the strategy and tactics document which was adopted by the Nasrec conference five years ago.

"So that will be the measurement against which the policies are measured and one of those issues in terms of organisational renewal, it is, of course, the step-aside rule."

Venter believes the decisions made at the policy conference will have a bearing on the elective conference in December.

"In the beginning of the year, it was a certainty that Ramaphosa will be elected as the president of the ANC for the second term, but as the year went on and we had several incidents, we had the Zondo report, the Phala Phala and many other issues, the certainty is no longer at the same level.

I think he still has the upper hand, but it is no longer at the same level. I think he goes into this conference and the December conference against a lot of competition," says Venter.