50th National Conference of the African National Congress
The 50th National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) took place from 16 to 20 December 1997 at the University of the North West[1] in what was then called Mafikeng. Attended by 3,000 voting delegates,[2] the conference elected a successor to outgoing ANC President Nelson Mandela, who declined to stand for another term. Thabo Mbeki was elected unopposed, and Jacob Zuma was elected unopposed as his deputy; they were later elected President and Deputy President of the country in the 1999 general elections, in which the ANC won 66.35% of the vote, up from 62.65% in 1994.
Although the conference entirely changed the composition of the party's top leadership, with Mbeki and Zuma the only residuum of the so-called "Top Six" as elected in 1994, most candidates were elected unopposed, and there was relatively little appearance of friction from any wing of the party. On some accounts, this was because the top leadership prepared assiduously for the conference, advocating unity and continuity, lobbying for a slate of preferred candidates, and negotiating compromises with potential dissidents.[3][4] However, two of the top positions – National Chairperson and Deputy Secretary General – were contested, and neither went to the Mbeki-allied candidate. The conference also elected the 60-member National Executive Committee (NEC) without any significant upsets. Significant resolutions of the conference endorsed cadre deployment; endorsed the controversial Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy; and changed the ANC constitution to reduce the frequency of the national conferences and to centralise the election process for parliamentary candidates.
Leadership election[edit]
President[edit]
Mbeki, who had been Mandela's deputy in the party and in the government since 1994, was widely understood within the ANC to be the candidate whom Mandela and other top leaders intended to become the next ANC President. In July 1996, Mandela said that Mbeki was "very talented and very popular and if the organisation elected him, I would feel that they have made the correct decision."[7] In a televised interview on 14 December 1997, two days before the conference, he said:
Resolutions[edit]
The 50th National Conference marked the inauguration of a formal ANC policy of cadre deployment in the public service. The conference resolved that the ANC should pursue a strategy of cadre deployment across "the key centres of power," including by establishing deployment committees at every level of the organisation.[24] This resolution was implemented from 1998, when the national deployment committee was founded under the leadership of Zuma, the newly elected ANC Deputy President.[3] Following allegations of state capture in later years, the cadre deployment policy has become controversial.
The conference also weighed in on the burgeoning controversy around the Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy (GEAR), a neoliberal macroeconomic policy introduced in 1997, and its implications for the ANC's flagship Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The conference endorsed GEAR as a central part of the ANC's economic and social framework, and resolved that GEAR did not supplant the RDP but rather "aimed at giving effect to the realisation of the RDP."[25][26] Despite dogged criticism of GEAR in the past from within the party and its Tripartite Alliance partners, the resolution was adopted unanimously after fifteen minutes discussion, possibly because the leadership had engaged extensively with critics prior to the conference.[4]
Finally, the conference made modifications to the ANC constitution which are viewed as having consolidated executive power within the organisation. The constitution was changed such that national conferences would be held only every five years, instead of every three years, with national general councils introduced as the mid-term national meeting of the ANC.[27] This extended the term of the Top Six and NEC commensurately. The constitution was also changed to establish a "national list committee," composed of between five and nine members chosen by the NEC, which would control the election of parliamentary candidates.[4]