ANC economic policy to change

Johannesburg - The ANC's economic policies are going to change, the party's secretary general Gwede Mantashe told business representatives in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

However, these changes would involve "retaining and building" on what had worked and changing what had not worked, he said.

They would be based on an "ideological shift".

Since the ANC's 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in December, the ruling party has been at pains to assure the business community that its policies will not change.

On Tuesday, Mantashe said the party was talking about "continuity of change".

Mantashe shared a platform with Wendy Luhabe, the chairperson of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), who is also the wife of former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa.

Shilowa resigned in a breakaway from the ANC with former defence minister Terror Lekota in order to start a new party.

Last week Luhabe and the IDC denied claims by the ANC Youth League that Luhabe was directing some of its funds to her husband's new political movement.

ANC Youth League spokesperson Floyd Shivambo earlier accused Luhabe of "abuse of power" of her IDC position to divert funds to the breakaway party of former ANC heavyweights Lekota and her husband, Shilowa.

Mantashe and Luhabe embraced and exchanged greetings when they arrived for the business forum, but the two sat apart.

Addressing the business representatives, Mantashe said their focus should not be on the split in the ANC, but rather on the challenges facing the country - poverty and unemployment.

Political leadership was central to South Africa meeting these challenges, but they could not be reduced to competition between political parties.

Work on poverty and unemployment had been going on for years, and could not be "reduced to the moment".

Manto replacement

He said education and health had been identified as priorities for the next few years and that the recent cabinet shuffle proved the government's commitment on this score.

Mantashe told the businessmen the replacement of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang with Barbara Hogan as health minister had not been informed by the "love" of any individual over another, "but the call from society [to] say please do something about the health sector".

Action in the safety and security sector had been a response to a similar call "to remove the tensions that had been there for some time" and on the justice side, after the confrontations involving the National Prosecuting Authority, it was time "to bring in some fresh air".

Mantashe said the ANC was treating the latest political developments as "normal evolution" in a democracy.

- Sapa