Deputy president is still defending cadre deployment
16 November 2023 - 16:05
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Deputy president Paul Mashatile. Picture: ANTÓNIO MUCHAVE
Deputy president Paul Mashatile stoutly defended cadre deployment before the National Council of Provinces on October 26, saying “they are the best people”.
This despite the Zondo state capture commission finding that cadre deployment is unconstitutional, and the ANC cabinet deciding last year to move away from loyalty as a criterion for appointment, and towards competence and professionalism.
The mind boggles. A heartbeat away from power is a man who lives in a parallel universe. A universe where it is merely an act of fate for Eskom to be run down over 20 years from the best power utility in the world to a dark shadow of its former glory; for our ports to move from among the top 40 to the bottom five globally; for our rail service to carry ever less freight.
According to the deputy president the failure of governance and state-owned enterprises is not due to the appointment of corrupt and incompetent cadres, but instead to “weak institutional competence”.
This is breathtaking circular reasoning, as pointed out by former FW de Klerk Foundation executive director Theuns Eloff. What caused this institutional incompetence? Why, the cadres of course! One is tempted to laugh, but this insight into the ANC mind is no laughing matter.
In this parallel universe the incompetence all around us is the fault of some malign outside agency, and nothing to do with the governing party or its cadre deployment policy. With this “logic” one can never lose and never has to take responsibility. Our “long day’s journey into night” is no fault of the ANC or its ideology.
If our country is to prevail we must all do our utmost to ensure that the light of reason emanating from the Zondo commission continues to shine.
Willem Cronje Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Mashatile’s parallel universe
Deputy president is still defending cadre deployment
Deputy president Paul Mashatile stoutly defended cadre deployment before the National Council of Provinces on October 26, saying “they are the best people”.
This despite the Zondo state capture commission finding that cadre deployment is unconstitutional, and the ANC cabinet deciding last year to move away from loyalty as a criterion for appointment, and towards competence and professionalism.
The mind boggles. A heartbeat away from power is a man who lives in a parallel universe. A universe where it is merely an act of fate for Eskom to be run down over 20 years from the best power utility in the world to a dark shadow of its former glory; for our ports to move from among the top 40 to the bottom five globally; for our rail service to carry ever less freight.
According to the deputy president the failure of governance and state-owned enterprises is not due to the appointment of corrupt and incompetent cadres, but instead to “weak institutional competence”.
This is breathtaking circular reasoning, as pointed out by former FW de Klerk Foundation executive director Theuns Eloff. What caused this institutional incompetence? Why, the cadres of course! One is tempted to laugh, but this insight into the ANC mind is no laughing matter.
In this parallel universe the incompetence all around us is the fault of some malign outside agency, and nothing to do with the governing party or its cadre deployment policy. With this “logic” one can never lose and never has to take responsibility. Our “long day’s journey into night” is no fault of the ANC or its ideology.
If our country is to prevail we must all do our utmost to ensure that the light of reason emanating from the Zondo commission continues to shine.
Willem Cronje
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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