Ahead of its manifesto launch in Durban on Saturday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula played down the role of the party’s deployment committee, saying it did not micromanage ministers or party president Cyril Ramaphosa.
He said state capture could not be attributed to the cadre deployment policy, saying the Gupta brothers had carefully orchestrated and executed that system of corruption along with their network of enablers in the government and big corporations.
The committee’s role in deploying people to state-owned enterprises and other state entities has come into sharp focus in recent weeks when, after a lengthy court battle, the Constitutional Court ordered the ANC to hand over its deployment records, from 2013 onwards, to the DA on Monday.
Both the ANC and the DA made the documents publicly available on Tuesday.
The Zondo Commission that investigated state capture found that documents submitted by the ANC regarding the deployment committee “make it clear that while ministers make recommendations to the deployment committee and seek permission to appoint their chosen candidates, it is the committee that will approve the appointment or send it back for reconsideration”.
It said ministers have been chastised by the deployment committee for presenting their choices as final and irrevocable or presenting names to the Cabinet which were not approved by the committee.
Mbalula, speaking at a media conference at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, said the committee deploys people but does not hold anyone accountable.
“It is the political party that belongs to the ANC structures that hold people, including the president, accountable.”
Mbalula said ANC members who hold office are accountable to the national executive committee and the national working committee.
“Officials of the ANC are also called by the secretary-general to give reports and to appraise the ANC on various tasks.
“That includes the president, who is the president of the ANC, who may be asked to brief the ANC and take the party into confidence on various matters in his purview as the president of the party.”
Mbalula said the deployment committee, in terms of its mandate, could not call people to account on operational matters or “micromanage the state”.
He said the committee could not appoint people to a position but identified people whose skills matched certain jobs and encouraged them to apply.
“Those members compete with the rest of society and then the state organs or state institutions will then make a determination on the basis of what is before them.”
The DA has accused the governing party of running the country into the ground because of its cadre deployment policy which puts people in top positions based on their loyalty to the party, rather than on merit or skills.
Mbalula said the party did not have anything to hide with its deployment as he accused the DA of being behind a “real plan” which was to “declare transformation unconstitutional”.
“The ANC has not made it secret that its primary mission is to eradicate all forms of colonialism, regionalism, ethnic and tribal or gender discrimination ... transformation is therefore a constitutional imperative.”
On Wednesday, the DA lost its bid to have the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, overturn the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, with the party saying it will appeal. Mbalula said courts were being used to reverse transformation.
“A DA-led right-wing force opposed to transformation has launched an ideological offensive strategy that has deliberately and systematically sought to fundamentally distort the deployment strategy for quite some time.
“A false narrative has been pushed vigorously in the media about the exact nature and actual practices.
“There has also been a concerted effort by the anti-transformation forces to use the courts in their fight to slow down, stop or reverse the transformation agenda,” Mbalula said.
DA leader John Steenhuisen is expected to lead a media briefing to announce his party’s next move in “the fight against cadre deployment corruption” today.
Cape Times