DA seeks information on ANC Gauteng deployments
13 April 2021
I have today hand-delivered a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request to the ANC in Gauteng for all details of cadre deployments made to public service positions in the province.
The application has gone to Premier David Makhura in his capacity as Chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng. He is requested to provide the Democratic Alliance (DA) with a complete record of minutes for every meeting of the ANC’s provincial cadre deployment committee since 1 January 2010 – spanning more than 10 years.
There is compelling evidence that political appointments have undermined the efficiency and effectiveness of provincial government departments and agencies as the best qualified persons have not been appointed.
Such appointments contravene section 197 (3) of the Constitution, which provides that “no employee of the public service may be favoured or prejudiced only because that person supports a particular political party or cause”.
It also appears that corruption is facilitated by political appointees who influence lucrative contracts to favoured suppliers.
My colleague in the National Assembly, Leon Schreiber MP, has already submitted a similar PAIA application to Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as ANC president and chairperson of the ANC’s national deployment committee since 1 January 2013.
The dire impact of political appointments is plain to see at state-owned enterprises such as Eskom, Transnet, PRASA and the SABC. But Gauteng provincial entities have also been undermined in this way.
Examples include the Gauteng Gambling Board, which has been put under administration for the second time in nine years, and the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller, which is supposed to promote small businesses, but is now being probed by the Special Investigating Unit.
Political appointments have also contributed to the scandals that bedevil the Gauteng Health Department.
Makhura has 30 days to respond to the DA’s application under section 50 of the PAIA, which directs that a private body “must” grant access “to any record of a private body, if that record is required for the exercise or protection of any rights”.
Last month, during the debate on the annual report of the Premier’s Office, I questioned whether this office was the real centre of power in this province or if key decisions are being made elsewhere (see video link here).
The DA believes that the public has the right to know the true extent of the governing party’s deployment of cadres in Gauteng, which is unconstitutional as it contravenes the separation of party and state.
Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Member of the Oversight Committee of the Premier’s Office and Legislature (OCPOL), 13 April 2021
