The battle against the ANC’s cadre deployment policy continued in the High Court in Pretoria yesterday as civil rights organization AfriForum joined the fight. AfriForum advocate Mark Oppenheimer and advocate Anton Katz for the Democratic Alliance (DA) presented submissions and arguments to Vice President Aubrey Ledwaba on the potential challenges to the appointments already in place in the policy. They also called for the policy to be banned. DA leader John Steenhuisen said he expects the courts to challenge the policy. “It is illegal and it gives a clear directive that it is unconstitutional and …
The battle against the ANC’s cadre deployment policy continued in the High Court in Pretoria yesterday as civil rights organization AfriForum joined the fight.
AfriForum advocate Mark Oppenheimer and advocate Anton Katz for the Democratic Alliance (DA) presented submissions and arguments to Vice President Aubrey Ledwaba on the potential challenges to the appointments already in place in the policy. They also called for the policy to be banned.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said he expects the courts to challenge the policy.
“It is illegal and it gives a clear directive that it is unconstitutional and cannot be practiced anymore,” he said.
Steenhuisen said that South Africa can only build a qualified civil service when the civil service, state-owned entities and government departments are staffed by qualified people who have been placed in these positions based on who they don’t know but who they know.
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General view
At the Union Buildings, people interviewed by The Citizen also spoke out against the policy. Lindiwe Shokane said the deployment of cadres was wrong.
“It’s wrong because he chose the person he recommended, it’s not fair,” he said.
Shokane said every party should have the opportunity to recommend candidates for the top position.
Another interviewee, Nadia Visagie, said that Eskom was an example of why the cadre policy was ruled invalid.
“We did not just vote for the ANC to manage all public services and big companies. Things are not working, so we have to make changes,” he said.
Experts weigh in
North-West University political analyst Dr Benjamin Rapanyane said the deployment of cadres is part of the ANC’s official policy in governing with the tripartite alliance.
“This policy emerged from the ANC’s cadre policy and deployment strategy with its early roots in the 1996 ANC-SACP. [SA Communist Party] the national democratic revolution guides policy documents in the new democratic dispensation,” he said.
Changed the racially biased SA administration
Rapanyane said the policy was initially adopted to change South Africa’s racist public administration when blacks made up the majority of civil servants in lower positions.
“The aim is to get South Africa’s public administration back into the hands of black Africans. Over time, this policy has been the center of heavy criticism by most South Africans,” he said.
“Today, the public believes that this policy has led to large-scale corruption, because individuals associated with the struggle for democracy have been placed in the highest echelons of state institutions to manipulate procurement and other processes to siphon large amounts of funds for networks. politicians, servants state and businessmen.
“The initial idea or purpose of cadre deployment is to bring institutions under the control of the party rather than the state; therefore, it leads to competing internal interests emerging with widespread corruption and theft by a network of corrupt cadres, whose party loyalty has been rewarded with projects to supply the country with resources.
Political analyst Piet Croucamp said that chief justice Raymond Zondo has expressed doubts about the legality and constitutionality of the deployment of cadres as a strategy.
Croucamp said that’s one of the reasons the DA is doing it.
“There is a big possibility that they can succeed and that is one of the things that is at the heart of corruption in South Africa,” he said.
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