Speaking in Hermanus yesterday at the BizNews Investment Conference, Frans Cronje told delegates that structural problems in the ANC were a primary reason why the party had failed to adopt the reforms that could reverse its fading political fortunes.

Cronje said that voter opinion was such that the ANC could easily win the 2029 national election if it drove simple reforms to energy, taxation and infrastructure policy to get economic growth up a bit ahead of the 2029 election.

Ideological blinkers, factionalism and corruption are often cited as reasons why the ANC has failed to do this.

But Cronje said that another structural reason needed to be added to that list, telling delegates that "the ANC's executive committee, which you should think of as its board, is extremely large and diverse, but the party leader, who you should think of as the chairman of the board, insists on first finding consensus within the board before making firm decisions."

This structural problem, he said, had in a sense "immunised" the ANC against the ability to reform.

As a consequence, he said the "ANC drifted largely aimlessly from meeting to meeting without the ability to unite around an economic reform plan capable of securing the national economic recovery that would see many of its former voters return to the fold."

Cronje compared this to the leadership approach of Mr Mandela, who had forced consensus upon his party instead of looking to create it through endless debate and negotiation.