A communist firebrand has shifted the ruling party to the left
SOUTH AFRICA’S ruling African National Congress (ANC) has veered sharply to the left and will go into elections, expected to be held in April, with a manifesto largely dictated by the country’s Communist party, according to senior party officials.
Under Jacob Zuma, its new leader, it has quietly adopted a radical platform of social policies which the business community claim are unaffordable.
The ANC already promises a free allowance of water and electricity to all and has introduced the largest welfare state ever seen in a developing country, with more than 40% of the population in receipt of state handouts.
Under the influence of its firebrand new secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, a former leader of the mine-workers’ union and chairman of the South African Communist party, it is adopting policies and rhetoric based on left-wing states such as Cuba and Venezuela.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5581272.ece