The ANC and its alliance partners' weekend summit has demonstrated the extent to which the ruling party had been hijacked by leftists, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.

"The Cosatu and SACP "tails" of the alliance are now firmly wagging the ANC "dog" away from job-creating economic growth as the primary economic policy priority," DA spokesperson Kobus Marais said in a statement.

The outcome of the economic policy summit suggested that the ANC would now be indifferent towards investor confidence and issues of property rights.

The summit had contradicted ANC president Jacob Zuma's position that the country's economic policy would not be changed.

"Instead, it has outlined a marked shift to the left, which will rest on every negative aspect of the ANC government's track record of economic policy implementation," Marais said.

Changes suggested at the summit include the creation of a two-tier Cabinet, a planning commission and an industrial policy that focused more sharply on job creation.

However, Marais dismissed the proposed changes as a "pie-in-the-sky outputs wish-list" which fails to take into account the amount of effort required for the stated objectives to be realised.

"If anything, the outcome of the tripartite alliance economic summit points to an ever-growing need for a political realignment on the economic front as much as in every other public sphere in South Africa," he said.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa dismissed the summit's outcomes as "pre-election rhetoric".

Sapa