DURBAN - WHILE the nation waited for the handover of the State Capture Commission report with bated breath, the commission released minutes of the ANC cadre deployment committee meetings for the years 2018 to 2021.
The cadre deployment policy was an integral part of the commission’s investigations over the past four years.
Political analysts lauded the commission’s move to make available these minutes as an “unprecedented act of entrenching accountability in the political landscape”.
Geopolitics expert Dr Ralph Mathekga said the internal politics of a party are just as important to the public as they are to the party.
“We have to know as voters what the parties we put in power are discussing in these meetings they always commit to, more especially when it involves the appointment of party officials to important positions.
“It is indeed unprecedented, but important nonetheless. Usually, decision-making processes are often veiled in secrecy with no accountability.
“What the commission is confirming through these meetings is that cadre deployment is where the problems that led to the commission started. In other words, the capture of the state started in the ANC and went to the government,” said Mathekga.
Professor Bheki Mngomezulu, of the School of Social Science at UKZN, contends that the ANC’s insistence and misuse of the policy obscured its meaning and resulted in the rejection of the policy.
“The concept of cadre deployment has over the years been lost in translation. In reality, the concept is what all political parties are doing. If you look at what the DA is doing in the Western Cape it’s exactly the same thing.
“Once a political party wins an election, it cannot just bring anyone into a strategic position, it has to select people who have worked within the party in order to read from the same script, so to speak.
“The only predicament is the ANC was honest about it, and then ruined it. Of course it cannot be said if it is right or wrong. But it needs to be reimagined.”
He said political parties have to commit to not appointing people into positions of power on account of political expediency but based on their credentials.
“The most important thing is that people should be appointed to positions of power based on their requisite skills, experience and academic qualifications.
“If that is done, it would mean service delivery will improve and the number of service delivery-related protests are going to go down.”
Mngomezulu said as President Cyril Ramaphosa was part of the government during the state capture, where cadre deployment is questioned, he should be held accountable just like any other ANC official.
“I have always criticised the current president for using the phrase ‘nine lost years’.
“It’s tantamount to misleading the nation because he was part of the government.”
Daily News