ANC trips over itself trying to decode Zuma’s phrase du jour
Bronwyn Nortje: ‘Radical economic transformation’ is so wooly it is impossible to implement — or to monitor
If you still haven’t figured out what "radical economic transformation" is, you are not alone. The phrase has been doing the rounds in the ANC for some time, but it was only when it emerged from the mouth of the president during his state of the nation address that this new "it" phrase gained prominence in the South African political discourse. I haven’t yet figured out if the use of this particular phrase is deliberately vague in that it provides broad scope for the government to engage in a wide range of potentially damaging economic policies without actually stating them, or if it is just useful rhetoric to counter the success of the EFF’s "populist" messaging.It could also simply be another example of the ANC falling into the trap that so many post-liberation governments fall into, in using unintentionally ill-defined terms when they lay out their plans for the future. Luckily for those of us who are still wondering about all of this, several ANC stalwarts have leapt to our assi...
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