Durban - ANC President Jacob Zuma offered glimpses of future economic policy, probably under his tenure, in a keynote address to the Black Management Forum (BMF) in Durban on Saturday night.
Unfortunately, they were just glimpses, suggesting possible changes but frustratingly short on detail.
Zuma was the guest of honour at the BMF function, where he was given an African Leadership Award and made the organisation's "number one member".
Innuendo abounded, though some was probably not deliberate. As when BMF President Jimmy Manyi said in his address that "the BMF is committed to getting people to take HIV/Aids seriously".
Surely that wasn't a reference to the guest of honour?
Zuma also dipped into innuendo as he wandered off his official speech to have his customary swipe at the media. "I believe some of the media - I don't believe it's deliberate - have a lack of knowledge (about) our culture. They have to take into account our culture...it's important to do this as a sign of respect."
Though not referring to former columnist David Bullard by name, he then mentioned members of the media "who behave like a person from England", and went on to say how a journalist from the Sunday Times - "I think he was fired" - came around to his house to say sorry about things he had written about Zuma.
"What must I do, he asked. Should I leave the country? I said to him, don't go. You will help other journalists to learn."
Zuma's point seemed to be that the media needed to show respect for other people. "We have families, you must think about how our families will feel when you say things."
On transformation of economic policy, Zuma said the ANC is "in essence" about transformation. "We have always wanted to change the political landscape, the social architecture of the country, the economic status quo and to completely overhaul the living conditions of our people."
'I'm just a simple man'
He said while substantial progress had been made since 1994 in transforming the economy to benefit the majority, serious challenges remain and the ANC was still at the beginning of transformation of the economy.
"One of the key instruments of achieving transformation is an effective developmental state. We want to put the state at the centre of development, and sharply improve our economic planning capacity."
In this regard Zuma was critical of poor service delivery, saying the pace needed to be speeded up from the public sector. "Look at the cost of unspent money in the Budget every year. These roll-overs are unnecessary."
He urged the BMF to help the ANC to improve the quality of public service delivery. "The work ethic that is promoted in the private sector, of planning faster, and implementing plans even faster, must be promoted in the public service if we are to fast-track the delivery of services. We would appreciate if BMF recruits as many public sector managers as possible, to enable the cross-pollination of ideas."
Looking to the next five years, Zuma said policies formulated at the national policy conference last year we adopted at the national conference in Polokwane. "That is why we say there will be no fundamental change in policy, and that there can only be fine-tuning to sharpen certain areas of focus."
But the audience was left in the dark as to what and where "fine-tuning" might take place. Zuma said the test would be in the implementation.
His speech started with reference to "a prophet" never being honoured in his hometown. It ended, off the official speech again, with a description of his humble beginnings where Zuma said he "was trained" by herding cattle and goats.
"I'm just a simple man...who wakes up in the morning, ready to serve the people and nothing more."
So how does Zuma see himself? An unacknowledged profit? A simple, humble man? Maybe just a humble prophet.
- Fin24.com