NOTHING WRONG WITH CADRE DEPLOYMENT, BUT EVERYTHING WRONG WITH PATRONAGE APPOINTMENTS.
In the recent past, a lot has been said and written about how poor service delivery protests are being staged as a direct consequence of the ruling party's policy of cadre deployment. The ruling party has been widely accused of deploying under-qualified and less experienced party loyalists into strategic positions in government departments, state-owned enterprises and municipalities at the expense of good governance and sustainable service delivery. Those making the allegations behave as if the concept of cadre deployment is an invention of the ruling party and that its application only began after 1994.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights has even registered a formal complaint with the Public Protector and the Chairman of the Public Service Commission to investigate report on and take remedial action against the ANC's unlawful and unconstitutional practice of cadre deployment in the public service (see here).
Firstly, the complaint by the Centre for Constitutional Rights is premised on the article in the City Press of Sunday 26 October 2009 sponsored by Caiphus Kgosana & Moffat Mofokeng. In the article the authors of the article quote from copies of correspondence between the ANC's provincial secretary in Limpopo and the former Premier regarding the transfer of the head of safety and security to head of public works. In the correspondence the provincial secretary had allegedly stated that:
"It is noteworthy that the deployment committee of the ANC had deployed Mr. Thobakgale to the post of head of safety and security. The organisation has observed that the aforementioned has since been transferred as head of public works without the ratification of such a decision by the ANC. This constitutes sidestepping or undermining of organisational deployment processes. The organisation has arrived at a decision that the premier must reverse the transfer of Mr. Thobakgale to safety and security with immediate effect."
Secondly, the Centre for Constitutional Rights cites a recent Grahamstown High Court judgment in the matter of Vuyo Mlokoti v Amathole District Municipality (case No 1428/2008, 6 November 2008). In that matter, the Amathole District Municipality had allegedly appointed its new municipal manager purely as a result of an instruction that the ANC members on the District Council had received from the ANC's regional leadership. They allegedly took their decision, despite the fact that the ANC candidate was found to be a weaker candidate by an 11-member representative selection panel. In setting aside the decision to appoint the ANC deployee, the learned judge had the following to say:
"The involvement of the Regional Executive Council of the ANC constituted an unauthorised and unwarranted intervention in the affairs of first respondent's council. It is clear that the councillors of the ANC supinely abdicated to their political party their responsibility to fill the position of the Municipal Manager with the best qualified and best suited candidate on the basis of the qualifications, suitability and with due regard to the provisions of the pertinent employment legislation. This was a responsibility owed to the electorate as a whole and not just to the sectarian interests of their political masters."
The system and policy of cadre deployment was practiced by the Great Britain and the United States of America in the mid-19th century and probably in many other countries all over the world.
Our country is therefore no exception on matters of party loyalty-linked cadre deployment. Cadre deployment was applied for over 40 years before 1994 by the Nationalist Party. And after 1994 it was also overtly applied in the new provinces of Kwazulu-Natal under Inkatha Freedom Party, the Western Cape under the New National Party and the rest of the country by the ANC. In fact, the ANC even sent some its cadres to foreign universities and colleges in preparation for deployment in the post-1994 public service
When the Democratic Alliance toppled the ANC and took over the Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality with the assistance of smaller parties after the 2006 local government elections, their first victim was the former City Manager Dr. Wallace Mgoqi who was suspected of not owing allegiance to the new political masters. Dr. Mgoqi and a number of his executive management were eventually replaced by the DA aligned officials.
What is currently eroding the social fibre of our beautiful country is the entrenched culture of patronage appointments and awarding of lucrative tenders to the politically connected individuals within the public service. This practice is distinctively different from the cadre deployment policy whereby the party in power would carefully deploy committed cadres to ensure that the electoral mandates of that party find expression in the government's policy development programmes
People who are attributing cadre deployment practices only to the municipalities and provincial government departments under the ANC rule are therefore less than candid with the truth. Fact of the matter is that cadre deployment is an internationally established practice and in some countries rotation of senior public servants follows immediately after electoral victories (or defeat) for those public servants who have aligned themselves with political parties. We need therefore, not to confuse cadre deployment with patronage appointments.
The practice of dispensing patronage through appointments and awarding of tenders in the public service is, for all intents and purposes not destined for service delivery provision and improvement of the quality of life of our citizenry. The primary objective of patronage is to build and sustain cartels of greedy and corrupt public servants and connected political cliques who feed on the lucrative tenders in the municipalities, government departments and state-owned enterprises. The beneficiaries of this kind of patronage are not loyal to the people of this country or any political party. They are loyal only to their respective political cliques.
Having said all that, I must hasten to caution that we must not paint all political deployees with the same brush. I can categorically state, without any fear of contradiction that a greater majority of political deployees found in our municipalities and government departments are hard working individuals who go an extra mile in ensuring that our deserving communities receive reliable, consistent, sustainable and top quality public services.
Former President Thabo Mbeki had this to say when addressing the ANC's National Policy Conference during June 2007 at Gallagher Estate, Midrand;
" I have spoken as I have because over the recent past all of us, loyal members of the African National Congress, have been subjected to a sustained barrage of propaganda that has suggested that we remain members of the ANC because we are determined to gain positions of power at the various levels of government, and thus to use these positions of power to accumulate wealth for ourselves and secure our positions of power by a mercenary dispensation of patronage.
I have spoken as I have because even as we prepared for this Policy Conference, that has absolutely nothing to do with who is or will be a leader of the African National Congress, by virtue of election by our membership, those responsible for the propaganda to which I have referred, have made it a point to assert that what we will do over the next four days is centrally driven by what they describe as "the leadership succession".
Addressing the ANC's provincial general council in Limpopo during July 2008 Deputy President Motlanthe warned as follows;
"We know of a number of liberation movements - including on this continent - that have lost their way because they have succumbed to division, greed, factionalism and patronage. And we cannot allow the deeper struggle and the sacrifices of so many of our people to come to nothing because we did not restrain the human impulse to accumulate power, prestige and material wealth. In many parts of our movement, there seems to be a greater interest in contracts, tenders and positions than in the mobilisation of the motive forces, the emancipation of women or the strategy and tactics of our movement".
Addressing at a recent meeting of Gauteng leaders, in Benoni , former Head of the Policy Unit in the Presidency, Mr. Joel Netshitenzhe reportedly accused the African National Congress for trying to "micromanage" government. He also accused some ANC members of insisting that ANC cadres must remain in position despite the fact that "a real misdemeanour is perpetrated", referring to instances where ANC cadres are found guilty of corruption but they are kept in their positions due to their political currency.
Delivering his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on Tuesday the 27 October 2009, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan called on all South Africans to work together to fight corruption.
He said the state could only achieve its aims of creating jobs, reducing crime and providing better services if politicians of all parties and the public stood firm against graft. He went on to say;
"For us to succeed we need a shared compact, across all divides of this House, and across the nation: We will not tolerate corruption.
"We will act forcefully against wastage. We will insist on value for the money for the billions that we spend.
"We will clean up the procurement system and take strong action against those who feed selfishly off the state."
We need to collectively and severally confront this handful of malcontents with all the energy and vigour at our disposal as proud South Africans before our beautiful country is being morally decayed and systematically reduced to a patronage society. The daunting challenge however, is that those practicing patronage appointments and awarding of tenders are always protected by senior political party bosses who will do everything in their power to even conceal the graft.
We must therefore continue to be resolute in exposing these corrupt networks of crooks wherever they exist. Our broader civil society formations must be must be vigilant, vibrant and continue to rise up against there corrupt practices, albeit in a peaceful and dignified manner.
David Nkoana works in the Office of the Premier, Limpopo. He writes in his personal capacity.
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