[miningmx.com] — The ANC Youth League is opposed to the inclusion of independent researcher Paul Jordaan in the ANC team probing the viability of nationalising the South African mines, it said on Wednesday.
“The ANCYL believes that Paul Jordan’s inclusion in the research team will altogether undermine the integrity of the research process,” spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said in a statement.
“We call on the ANC to reconsider his inclusion in the research team because he is prejudiced and his contribution will forever be questionable, because his views contradict the Freedom Charter.”
Shivambu also complained about the exclusion of the youth in the research team.
However, ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu said the ANCYL’s comments were “premature” and “unfortunate”.
“This is certainly work in progress. It does not preclude the inclusion of other key players. It’s premature for the youth league at this stage to issue a statement condemning one of the people chosen to play a role in the research,” he said.
He said the ANCYL should have aired its concerns within ANC structures rather than in the media.
Sokutu told the Business Day that Jordaan, University of the Witwatersrand researcher Pundy Pillay and Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu from the Human Sciences Research Council would join the ANC team conducting case studies on nationalisation in 13 countries.
He said the ANCYL, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA and the National Union of Mineworkers would be invited to contribute as “young intern researchers”.
“That is why I say it is very premature and unfortunate for them to comment the way they have,” Sokutu said.
He said the ANC believed independent researchers would lend credibility to the process, which he said was an ANC one.
“Its an ANC research. That is the bottom line. There is the inclusion of other people who are trained researchers…. Independent researchers add credibility.
“Its an ANC research and it will be reflective of the ANC and its cadres serving in organs and structures of the ANC.”
He said the process was still in its “early days”.
Jordaan’s views on nationalisation are contained in an ANC publication on the party’s website.
In it he argues that there were “far more effective ways achieving substantial development impacts from a country’s mineral assets than by the state simply taking ownership of mining companies”.
The ANCYL is leading a push for the nationalisation of South Africa’s mines.
At the ANC’s mid-term policy review conference last year, a resolution was adopted to probe the viability of the contentious policy.
The ANC’s highest decision making body, the national executive committee, was tasked with conducting the probe.
The NEC would report its findings to the ANC’s policy conference in 2012 and a final decision on nationalisation would be taken at the party’s national conference in the same year.
