LETTER: Clip cadre deployment’s wings

Rise Mzansi’s disquiet over the strange goings-on in the recruitment process for a new SAA CEO, not among the best candidates but among the remaining loyal ANC supporters, is well justified.

Though Rise Mzansi describes the processes involved as “the culture of cadre deployment” in the ANC, the very notion of a political party busying itself in the recruitment of a CEO of a state-owned enterprise (SOE) is illegal and unconstitutional, not cultural at all.

The final word on the topic is yet to be spoken by the Constitutional Court, where appeals are pending, but there is sound high court precedent for the proposition that cadre deployments are a no-no.

Not only is the doctrine of the separation of powers not respected, the values and principles that inform governance of the public administration and SOEs are flouted by the practice, though it has been long indulged in by the ANC, which has always had difficulty distinguishing party from state. That must change in the dawning era of coalition government.

Section 195 (1) of the constitution requires a high standard of professional ethics, not a friendly chat with the deputy president and minister, neither of whom have any business cosily appointing staff in SOEs where “good human-resource management and career-development practices” must be cultivated.

Moreover, “efficient, economic and effective use of resources” (including human resources) is not promoted by seeking out a lesser candidate with party credentials over an objectively better candidate without such connections. Section 195 also demands that “services must be provided impartially, fairly, equitably and without bias”.

The deputy president was involved in the interviewing in his capacity as chair of the Luthuli House deployment committee — a party political office — and not as a properly authorised state functionary. Luthuli House can make appointments within the ANC to positions in the ANC, but it has no business at all making decisions on appointments in the public administration or SOEs.

ANC cadre deployments are at the root of state capture, an ongoing scourge in SA. The practice must end.

Paul Hoffman
Director, Accountability Now

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