service’
Howard Barrell
The Democratic Party has produced research which, it says, shows how the African National Congress is subjugating the civil service to the ruling party. The official opposition says the pattern identified by its parliamentary researcher, James Myburgh, could have grave consequences for constitutional government in South Africa.
The DP research traces a time line which relates ANC statements on the need to have ruling party members at the top of state-controlled bodies to the subsequent appointment of leading ANC members to these institutions. (See extract below.) The DP charges that, combined with the ANC’s organising principle of “democratic centralism” – which obliges members to observe strict hierarchical discipline in carrying out party decisions – this is fostering party supremacy over state- controlled bodies.
The issue highlighted by the DP research is the extent to which the civil service and other state-controlled institutions should, or may need to be, politicised in a country going through a phase of rapid transformation.
Other countries – including the major Western democracies – adopt differing approaches to the politicisation of the upper reaches of the civil service. Britain insists that its civil service remain neutral in a party political sense. In the United States, however, presidential administrations quite often place political nominees in the high echelons of the public service.
DP leader Tony Leon said from London this week: “The ANC will not accept that there is such a thing as a neutral civil service. They are making political appointments at the top of the civil service the norm, not the exception. In the process, they are collapsing the wall between party and state. They have decided to go for hegemony and believe that this aim should trump all other considerations.
“One problem that stems from this is that, if others then expose poor implementation by the civil service, the ANC finds it very difficult not to close ranks and become defensive. This does not lead to good government or a clean administration – vital in this information age. We need to appoint people who will do the best job in the best manner.
“The ANC, of course, will see nothing wrong with the party being in control because it is the party and, it claims, the party is the people. But the political direction of a department should be set by the minister and the advisers … not by civil servants.
“There may be something to say for this kind of behaviour when you are still a liberation movement, but not when you are the party in government. The ideological justification for this kind of behaviour … is better than its practical justification. It will all boil down to a squalid case of jobs for pals.”
The ANC turned down the offer of an opportunity to respond at length. It said there was nothing new in the DP material, and that it had expressed itself in the past on these issues.
1996 – July: “Winter school” for senior political leadership: Joel Netshitenzhe gives a paper titled The National Democratic Revolution (NDR): Is It Still on Track?
November to December: The ANC publishes the first edition of Umrabulo (fourth quarter 1996), containing Netshitenzhe’s piece on the NDR. The piece identifies six centres of power, including media and state machinery, saying “strategic deployment” can help the ANC take control of them.
1997 – January 8: The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) releases its January 8 statement. It complains that ANC cadres in local government and the civil service are not being sufficiently loyal to the party. It tells ANC cadres in management structures: “You are not ANC cadres only ‘after hours’.”
July: The ANC releases various discussion documents prepared for its 50th national conference in December 1997. These include: organisational democracy and discipline in the movement – the ANC is guided by principle of democratic centralism, and decisions of the NEC are binding on ANC members between conferences; challenges of leadership in the current phase -the ANC should draw up cadre policy which ensures that all power in the state, economy and ideological arena is in the hands of the ANC, and that ANC cadres are loyal to the party.
July 17: Business Day says Netshitenzhe wrote the “challenges of leadership” excerpt.
December 11: Business Day reports on ANC discussion document on governance for national conference. The document calls for the adoption of a cadre policy; the placing of ANC cadres in the state, the economy, the media and civil society; the establishment of deployment committees to ensure these cadres remain informed by and accountable to the party leadership.
December 16: The ANC’s 50th national conference. The governance commission draws up a draft resolution on cadre deployment It states that the “conference resolves that the NEC develop a cadre policy to prepare members for deployment or redeployment in various spheres of governance and parastatals and the private sector; and that deployment committees be established”.
December 18: Business Day reports that ANC MP Pravin Gordhan is to be appointed deputy commissioner of the South African Revenue Service.
December 20: Conference sets out ANC cadre policy. The conference, noting “the need to deploy cadres to various organs of state, including the public service and to other centres of power in society”, mandates the ANC’s national executive to put in place a deployment strategy; identify key centres of power and deploy cadres there; and establish deployment committees which would deploy cadres to the “public service, parastatals, structures of the movement and the private sector” and ensure that these cadres remain accountable to the party.
1998 – January 21: Netshitenzhe becomes head of the Government Communications and Information Service. Yacoob Abba Omar, another ANC cadre, is made his deputy. Netshitenzhe stays on as a member of the ANC’s NEC and national working committee.
February 19 to 22: The ANC NEC holds a four-day Lekgotla in Cape Town. NEC elects new national working committee (NWC): Thoko Didiza, Gill Marcus, Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile, Frene Ginwala, Brigitte Mabandla, Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini, Sydney Mufamadi, Tito Mboweni, Joel Netshitenzhe, Joe Nhlanhla, Jeff Radebe, Max Sisulu, Zola Skweyiya, Steve Tshwete, Nkosazana Zuma.
April 24 to 25: The ANC NEC meets in Johannesburg. ANC says discussion is focused on “ongoing imperative of transforming the state”.
May 3: The Sunday Times publishes article, “Two-thirds majority: The ANC wants ‘unfettered power’.” It quotes ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe as saying the party will review the power of independent watchdogs if it wins a two- thirds majority in the forthcoming election. The ANC will then rule “unfettered by constraints”. Among institutions the ANC wants to review are the Judicial Services Commission, auditor general, attorney general and Reserve Bank.
April 29: Lieutenant General Siphiwe Nyanda is appointed chief of the South African National Defence Force. He is a former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) chief of staff, elected to the NEC in 1991.
May 27: Major General Gilbert Ramano is appointed chief of the army. He is a former MK commander.
July 4: Deputy President Thabo Mbeki announces appointment of Minister of Labour Tito Mboweni as governor-designate of the Reserve Bank. Mbeki says: “After looking at all the … candidates [who included deputy governors James Cross and Timothy Thahane], it was felt that … Mboweni would be the best choice.”
July 16: The ANC announces Bulelani Ngcuka will be the national director of public prosecutions. Ngcuka is an ANC MP, married to Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, then deputy minister of trade and industry.
June to August: Umrabulo (third quarter 1998) carries The State, Property Relations and Social Transformation: A Discussion Paper towards the Alliance Summit. It says: “Transformation of the state entails extending the power of the National Liberation Movement over all levers of power: the army, the police, the bureaucracy, intelligence structures, the judiciary, parastatals and agencies such as regulatory bodies, the public broadcaster, the central bank and so on.” It asks: “What have we done to train and deploy personnel in strategic areas within the state? Where this has happened … have we allowed ourselves to be distracted by the shallow protestations of the opposition backed up by the media?”
September 24: Joe Foster, ANC MP, appointed chair of the National Lotteries Board.
October 12: Business Day says Netshitenzhe is the main author of the State and Transformation document.
October 13: Business Day quotes alliance sources as saying the document was drafted by a committee “that included ANC NWC member Joel Netshitenzhe, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Mbhazima Shilowa and South African Communist Party member Philip Dexter”. Business Day editorial says: “There can be no doubt that the document mirrors the perspective of the ANC leadership,” adding “drafting was overseen by a committee chaired by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki”.
October 24: Mbeki tells tripartite alliance summit that the ANC endorses the document and hopes the summit will, too. Mbeki says the document is the outcome “of the alliance task group on transforming the state that we established at our last summit”.
November 5: Max Sisulu, ANC chief whip and member of the NWC, is appointed deputy chief executive officer of Denel. ANC says Sisulu’s redeployment to Denel is a source of “great satisfaction” to it. “It is hoped that Comrade Sisulu will be able to achieve similar success as achieved in those other corporations where redeployment has taken place, such as Transnet, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, etc …”
November 30: The ANC NWC adopts document on deployment strategy. It establishes a deployment committee headed by ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma to advise the NEC on all matters of deployment. The NWC adds that it has “received notices from Mac Maharaj, Joe Modise and Sibusiso Bhengu and Dave Darling [sic]” indicating that they will not stand for Parliament again. “Future deployment for these comrades will be made on the advice of the ANC deployment committee.” The document says “decisions on deployments to key positions in different centres of power” have been delegated to the NWC. “We must strengthen the political and administrative control and supervisory structures of the ANC at … the civil service” and “strengthen our leadership of parastatals and statutory bodies.”
December 3: The ANC says other members of the committee include Nkosazana Zuma (NWC), Zola Skweyiya (NWC), Mbhazima Shilowa (head of Cosatu, now Gauteng premier), Blade Nzimande (head of the South African Communist Party), Thenjiwe Mthintso (ANC deputy secretary general/NWC), Max Sisulu and Mendi Msimang (ANC treasurer/NWC).
December 10: Die Burger quotes ANC representative Thabo Masebe as saying the ANC doesn’t need a two-thirds majority to “transform” the judiciary and the Office of the Auditor General.
1999 – January 8: In the January 8 statement of the ANC’s NEC, Mbeki reaffirms the vanguard role of the ANC. He says there is a “need for a strong ANC made up of honest and dedicated cadres because this is the only political instrument that the masses of our people have in their hands to carry out the many and difficult tasks we have to discharge…”
January 20: The Cabinet announces the appointment of Michael Sutcliffe as chair of the national Municipal Demarcation Board. He is then a member of the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive, chair of the local government portfolio committee in the provincial legislature and a vocal proponent of megacity government.
February 15: The ANC publishes its preliminary election list. It includes: Gill Marcus, Phillip Dexter, Willie Hofmeyr and Jessie Duarte.
March 12: Jacob Zuma briefs the ANC parliamentary caucus. Business Day says Zuma told MPs not on the national election list – or who wanted their names removed from the list for the June 2 election – to contact the ANC deployment committee. The committee would suggest other jobs for them.
March 23: Mbeki is questioned in Parliament about a statement that the ANC wants to seize control over all “levers of power”. He responds: “The ANC has many people who have many skills – lawyers, doctors and all sorts of people with lots of skills and a firm commitment to the change that we want for this country. Accordingly, the ANC wants these skilled and committed people to play a role in all sectors of our society. Therefore the matter of the encouragement of our people to participate – whether it is in government structures or any other structures — is something that we, indeed, will definitely pursue.”
January to March: Umrabulo (no 6, first quarter 1999), initially not released into the public domain, carries cadre policy and deployment strategy approved by the NWC as well as a programme of action for the alliance. The programme states: “Our failure to prioritise the transforming of key ideological centres (such as universities, the privately owned media, research and policy institutes, with the exception of the public media) and the neglect of our internal propaganda machinery has resulted in a public debate about the process unfolding in the country which at best is shallow and at worst anti- transformation.”
April 30: Gill Marcus is appointed deputy governor of the Reserve Bank. She is then deputy minister of finance and a member of the NEC and the NWC.
May 3: The ANC releases its final electoral list. Duarte, Marcus, Dexter and Hofmeyr are absent from the list.
May 20: Hofmeyr appointed head of the asset forfeiture unit in the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
August 21: Sibusiso Bengu, ex-ANC Cabinet minister, is appointed ambassador to Germany. Duarte is appointed ambassador to Mozambique.
August 25: Tony Leon asks the president whether the cadre policy (Umrabulo no 6) is official government policy. Deputy President Jacob Zuma says it is merely a discussion document. But he adds that deployment committees at national and provincial levels which will “identify people, not just from the ANC, who are committed to the ideals of the new Constitution and who have the necessary skills for particular positions in the public and private sectors. These people will then be encouraged to apply for vacant positions. Obviously the normal and transparent employment procedures … will still be followed.”
August 27: Phillip Dexter, (ex-) ANC MP and SACP central committee member, appointed head of the National Economic Development and Labour Council.
October 17: Document entitled Assessing the Balance of Forces in 1999 in Umrabulo (no 7, third quarter 1999) identifies the police as the only state institution not yet under ANC control. It calls for renewed efforts to extend ANC hegemony over civil society. Under the heading “Media, the public debate and hegemony”, the document says: “This area is critical, because even though we may have made progress in material terms, unless the forces for change are able to exercise hegemony, it will impact on our capacity to mobilise society. The transformation of the SABC did take much longer than we thought. With regards the print media, the ownership structures remain a problem. The movement also needs to look at universities, research and policy institutes, culture, etc.”
October 20: The Cabinet appoints Jacob Selebi as police commissioner; Vusi Mavimbela as director general of intelligence; and Job Makgoro as head of the South African Management Development Institute. Selebi, then director general of foreign affairs, is a former ANC MP. Mavimbela, intelligence adviser to the president, was trained by the East German Stasi and held various ANC positions in exile. Makgoro, then director general of the North-West province, was chair of the ANC employee benefits unit.
This is an extract from the document compiled by DP parliamentary researcher James Myburgh