It was all going splendidly, President Jacob Zuma told a slate of journalists who had waited behind several cordons of security for some words. “What impressed me more is the quality of debate… We have this time more time that gave us an opportunity to have more debate, so there’s more clarity,” Zuma said as the photographer’s cameras clicked away. “This policy conference is going well. Anyone will agree with us, the results will be wonderful.”

Zuma’s walkabout, first among the statues of liberation struggle stalwarts, then in the exhibition hall, followed that of his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa a day earlier. The Deputy President on Sunday was similarly upbeat, both about the quality of delegates’ debate contribution and the wide-ranging discussions.

On both days, security was tight. Very tight.

For Ramaphosa’s walkabout, golf carts were organised to transport and instructions issued: “Put cameras down, put cellphones down.” One ANC marshal had an apoplectic fit when one journalist merely greeted a delegate; both have known each other for years. Another journalist told of how he ended up peeing in front of an ANC marshal, who had been told by a higher-up security to escort the journalist to answer the call of nature.

For Zuma’s walkabout at least journalists and photographers were actually allowed to walk the around 100 metres among delegates to the venue, under the beady eye of various security personnel escorting the journalists all the way. But interviews with vendors offering ANC regalia from T-shirts and caps to more upmarket items were still not allowed.

Security is tight. And the attitude seems to be keep your distance, you’ll get the photo op and a sound bite – no questions allowed! – and the media can ‘tsek back to the corral. Escorted by all sorts of security personnel.

But Monday’s short trip was a welcome relief, an escape from the media corral, fenced in and guarded by ANC marshals, uniformed SAPS members and a rotating roster of ANC security personnel and those from the presidential protection unit, identifiable by their lapel button, or those sporting tags “Natjoints” or “Sec Cluster”. That stands for security cluster – reflecting a Cabinet organisation that includes the police, state security, defence and home affairs. Natjoints is the National Joint Operations and Intelligence Structure, of course, which supervises, organises and implements security at all high-profile events, including the State of the Nation Address, or elections.

The presence of government security agencies, working alongside the ANC’s own security and marshals, presents an interesting blurring of the lines between state and party. Whether the costs of the SAPS, South African National Defence Forces (SANDF), State Security Agency and whoever else will ever emerge might depend on a parliamentary question from those pesky opposition parties, which in the ANC policy discussion documents are included as part of opposition forces driving regime change efforts.

If the ANC is concerned about a growing social distance between itself and the people, the securitised distance between itself and the media was intentional, and well orchestrated.

Behind the media fence, come lunch time it’s a watching game to see who walks down to which eating area. There are several, depending on the status of the delegate. And from behind the steel fence, at a brief glance it seems the women of the ANC have put in some effort to dress for the party gathering: the yellow, green and black combos are plentiful and range from chic to “shem, better luck next time”.

Camouflage gear is popular, maybe to give expression to the battles the ANC sees itself fighting – including negative neoliberal influences “not unrelated” to the governing party’s current “subjective weaknesses”, given their cumulative impact of a “silent shift from transformative politics to palace politics wherein internal strife and factional battles over power and resources define the political life of the movement”, according to the organisational renewal statement delivered by ANC head of organising, Fikile Mbalula, and imperialist Western forces and those espousing regime change by using, for example, protests over legitimate grievances. 

There’s some relief from being penned up when ANC honchos are brought through the cordon fence for interviews to one or all three of the television broadcasters set up there. For everyone else it’s mostly a melee to get in a quick word, or a bit of a longer conversation, before the visitor is hurried out beyond the media fence.

Talking of taking off, Mbalula has left the policy conference to attend an Interpol policing event in Singapore, or as a media statement put it: “(Police) Minister Fikile Mbalula, MP, has a rare honour to be invited to the international Criminal Police Organisation, ‘Interpol’ congress to set the agenda and tone on how the global body should respond to the scourge of cyber crime and other related crimes.” And Malusi Gigaba, the Finance Minister and ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member, took some time out to visit the Soweto offices of the South African Revenue Service (SARS). Photos can be found on his Twitter timeline. Escaping the bubble.

Perhaps neither the security nor the bubble should have been a surprise. The media entrance to the ANC policy conference, to both parking and briefing room, goes right past an amusement park, which appears to have fallen silent. DM

Photo: President Jacob Zuma at the ANC Policy Conference (Ihsaan Haffejjee)