LETTER: Mavuso and BLSA fail to address cadre-deployment questions

I have read the columns of Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership SA (BLSA), with interest over the past few months. Mavuso consistently overlooks two elephants in the room (“Government’s Zondo response leaves door ajar for cadre deployment”, November 13).

The first stems from a claim under oath by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his attempt to protect cadre deployment against the DA’s court application to abolish it. In his sworn affidavit Ramaphosa made the startling admission that “the cadre deployment policy applies to ... leadership in critical institutions including the private sector”.

This raises an uncomfortable question that Mavuso fails to address: potential complicity of big business in the ANC’s cadre deployment scheme. What steps has BLSA taken to investigate Ramaphosa’s revelation that appointments to leadership positions in “critical private sector institutions” were influenced by the ANC’s cadre-deployment committee?

The second elephant is even more obvious. Over all these months of writing about cadre deployment, Mavuso has not once mentioned the single most critical actor in not only exposing but also challenging this corrupt practice: the official opposition. As the DA’s political campaign against ANC cadre deployment corruption has succeeded in shifting public sentiment over the past three years, it has become increasingly common for commentators to jump on the anticadre deployment bandwagon without acknowledging that, in a country beset by political failure, the DA’s work on this issue is a shining example of a political party diligently doing the job it was elected for.

The failure to acknowledge such a basic fact does a disservice to voters, who often rely on commentators to provide them with analysis of the reasons behind important political developments. If they practised what they preach, Mavuso and BLSA would confront the potential complicity of big business in facilitating deployment of ANC cronies into powerful corporate positions, as alleged by none other than the president of the republic.

Better still, if they are truly committed to rising above petty political sensitivities in the national interest — as they regularly demand from political parties — Mavuso and BLSA would endorse publicly the DA’s court case to declare cadre deployment unconstitutional and illegal.

Leon Schreiber, MP
DA shadow public service & administration minister

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