Cadre deployment in 2011 and the National Democratic Revolution
One of the more ominous aspects of the 8 January 2011 statement by President Zuma, speaking as leader of the ANC, concerns the perfidious perpetuation of the practice of cadre deployment by the ANC in positions in the State and the private sector. This is what the President said:"We reiterate what we said in our 2007 Strategy and Tactics document that we place a high premium on the involvement of our cadres in all centres of power.
ANC cadres have a responsibility to promote progressive traditions within the intellectual community, which includes our universities and the media.
We also need their presence and involvement in key strategic positions in the State as well as the private sector, and will continue strategic deployments in this regard."
The Strategy and Tactics documents of 2007 to which reference is made is the current enunciation of the tenets of the ANC's "National Democratic Revolution" which is gradually, but perceptibly, morphing into the more constructive creation of the "National Democratic Society" - an expression used in the speech (and on banners) considerably more often than the somewhat outmoded revolutionary terminology.
Despite the call late last year by Professor Kader Asmal for this "revolution" to be scrapped, the President continued to make the occasional reference to the "National Democratic Revolution" during his speech. Hopefully the learned Professor's call will be heeded in due course, as his is a constitutionally sound stance. President Zuma's underplaying of reference to the "revolution" is perhaps an early indication that the National Executive Committee of the ANC is indeed moving in the direction of scrapping a notion that, upon mature reflection, belongs in the lexicon of a liberation movement, not a long established and well entrenched governing alliance. Fomenting revolutionary activities is not really the business of government in any constitutional democracy under the rule of law, and certainly not one in which multi-party politics, accountability, transparency and responsiveness to the needs of ordinary people are foundational values. Revolutions are driven by elites, for elites and in the name of "the proletariat", "the poor" and "the community" none of whom ever reap any lasting benefits from the revolution. Our constitutional democracy, on the other hand, is for all of the people - whose dignity, equality and freedoms are at the forefront of the democratic society that is in the process of emerging from the ashes of apartheid.
The fundamental problem with cadre deployment is that it is not transparent, nor is it accountable. It has long proved itself not to be responsive to the needs of ordinary people, many of whom resort to service delivery protests because the currently deployed cadres are so unresponsive to their needs. The cadres in the public administration have been described by the Courts as behaving as if they are at war with the people that they are meant to serve and of suffering from terminal lethargy.
By its very nature cadre deployment sets up a conflict of interest situation that enmeshes both deployee and deployer. Some cadre deployment committee of the ANC sits in a smoke filled room and decides whom the party should deploy and where. This is all well and good for political positions, but it simply does not work for the State and the private sector. This is because the deployed cadres are effectively being asked to serve two masters: the party (or alliance) that deployed them and the institution that employs them. The public administration is for the public, not for the party. Private institutions are for their shareholders' benefit, not that of the party or its cadre deployment committee.
In the case of the public administration this conflict of interest has so bedevilled the functioning of the many departments of state overloaded with deployed cadres that it ought by now to be clear to all that the practice can not go on. Even the best qualified and most experienced professionals are hamstrung by their allegiance to the party; they become mired in the conflict between serving their employer and those who deployed them. One need look no further than the sad example of Jimmy Manyi, who for a brief period tried to be simultaneously employed as Director General of Labour while continuing to lead the Black Management Forum, a lobby group not designed to serve all the people by any stretch of the imagination. His minister fired him. The brouhaha around Janet Love's "deployment" to the Human Rights Commission is a further example.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that the Constitution is clear and specific about the manner in which the public administration is to be staffed. High standards of professional ethics are demanded, not loyalty to the dictates of any cadre deployment committee. The basic values and principles governing public administration demand that people's needs must be responded to, not those of the party. Indeed, it is impossible to deploy cadres in the public administration in a manner which is consistent with the requirements that transparency is fostered and good human resource management practices are cultivated. The constitutional idea of sound career development practices, to maximise human potential, is at odds with cadre deployment, as was seen post- Polokwane when "team Mbeki" was rapidly replaced by "team Zuma" with all deployment committees at local, provincial and national levels working in overdrive to deploy the cadres of the moment. Those replaced were discarded. The same process occurs each time a new minister is appointed to the cabinet. Gwede Mantashe, Secretary General of the ANC and chair of the SACP, has wisely described this latter process as 'a recipe for disaster'. Yet cadre deployment is continued, to the detriment of the creation of the developmental state that the government desires and to the disadvantage of the nation as a whole.
The High Court has had occasion to criticise the practice of cadre deployment, characterising it as illegal and unconstitutional. The deployed cadre in the case was unceremoniously dumped from his position by the Court and the non-cadre candidate for the position (Municipal Manager in the Amathole District Municipality) was allowed to take his place. It is not the function of cadre deployment committees of the ANC to staff the public administration, it is the function of each employer in every sphere of government, in all organs of state and in public enterprises to employ (not deploy) personnel to serve the people. This should occur without being beholden to any cadre deployment committee for the honour of serving the people of South Africa "impartially, fairly, equitably and without bias", as section 195 of the Constitution puts it. No cadre loyal to the party deploying her or him can possibly be expected to adhere to these standards.
If, as President Zuma put it in his ANC 99th Anniversary speech, "our mission remains the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society" then the national democratic revolution, or at least its unconstitutional features, ought to be scrapped and its practice of cadre deployment in the public administration and the private sector must be abandoned forthwith and in express terms. Certainly, as far as the public administration, all organs of state (including Chapter Nine Institutions) and public enterprises are concerned, it is illegal and unconstitutional to continue with cadre deployment. The rule of law and the independent and separate powers of the Courts are undermined by the plans to continue to deploy cadres in these sectors despite the High Court ruling outlawing this pernicious practice.
If the ANC is not prepared to comport itself within the bounds of the Constitution by limiting the functioning of its cadre deployment committees to the field of political appointments, steps such as those taken against the Amathole District Municipality will have to be followed by opposition parties and all non-cadres desirous of serving the people by working in the public administration.
Paul Hoffman SC
January, 2011
