RET pushback likely after loss

One swallow does not make a summer. And the radical economic transformation (RET) faction of the ANC must be hoping that also holds true for politics, following the bloody nose it received at the party’s just-ended policy conference.

Led by Jacob Zuma loyalists from KwaZulu-Natal, whose people were elected to office at the recent provincial conference, the RET gang had been pushing hard to have the step-aside policy scrapped.

This is particularly sensitive for it, given that some of its leaders have been forced to step aside from positions and prevented from standing for office because they have prosecutions hanging over them.

If these prosecutions are not finalised by the end of the year – when the organisation has its critical elective conference – then those people might end up on the political fringes.

That is why there was so much at stake.

In the end, it was the wily party president, Cyril Ramaphosa – and make no mistake, he knows how to play the long political game – who came out ahead.

ALSO READ: ANC retaining step-aside policy ‘a lazy move’, says expert as Ramaphosa bruises RET faction

The step-aside policy remains, with some concessions towards RET in an assurance that it will be investigated as to whether it is being imposed impartially.

Although a lot can – and will – happen between now and December, the effective victory for Ramaphosa and his supporters gives a boost to his campaign for a second term as ANC president.

Whether the RET faction – whose heartland is KZN – will take this lying down remains to be seen, but it is not likely.

Prepare for more verbal grandstanding and possibly even more unrest along the lines of what happened in KZN and a few other parts of the country in July last year.

If Ramaphosa loses in December, his anticorruption drive – which has achieved more than many give him credit for – will be stopped in its tracks.

NOW READ: ‘Delegates support retention of ANC’s step aside policy’ – Ramaphosa