Zuma puts lid on mine debate

Durban - The national general council (NGC) was not the place to discuss new policies, ANC president Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

"We must not listen to the media and other people who say we are coming here to discuss new policies," he said, deviating from his prepared political report at the NGC in Durban.

He said the conference was aimed at reviewing progress on resolutions taken at the African National Congress national conference in Polokwane in 2007.

The NGC under way must not be treated as a policy conference, Zuma said.

The ANC Youth League, led by president Julius Malema, had been pushing for the nationalisation of mines to feature in discussions at the NGC with an aim to make it ANC policy in 2012 at its next national conference.

SA Communist Party deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin said he believed Zuma was referring to the nationalisation of mines when  he spoke about steering clear of new policies.
  
Cronin said nationalisation in general had to be addressed in the broader context of the South African economy.

A full debate was needed on how to maximise South Africa's natural resources for the benefit of all South Africans and nationalisation was a small part of this debate, said Cronin.
  
ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu confirmed that nationalisation was not part of the Polokwane resolutions which had to be reviewed at the current gathering.

He said it would have to go through internal ANC processes first, and would then be subjected to a debate at the party's next policy conference. If accepted, it would only be made a resolution at the national conference.
  
ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu declined to comment, saying the
matter would be debated internally.