“Careerism”, graft, faction, lack of accountability and indiscipline are the recurring nightmares of the African National Congress. And the recurring answer is the New Cadre.
“It’s the sweeteners that we must fight against,” party secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe told the ANC conference this week. “Too many moneyed people used to buying their way” were bringing gifts to ANC offices.
Motlanthe said it was crucial to restore the culture of accountability in the movement. Instead of raising their views within structures, members leaked information to the media.
“We are contributing to the tendency that those in authority select people,” he complained. It was important to “address the problem of some cadres not understanding that their previous deployment, as a Cabinet minister, MP, MEC, mayor, does not mean automatic deployment into that position or one of equivalent stature and financial packages in subsequent elections”.
Even ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota came in for some battering from Motlanthe for having “lost his ability to open his own doors” since becoming minister of defence.
The woeful state of the cadre is becoming a perennial at ANC conferences. Greed and career-mindedness were excoriated at the 1997 Mafikeng encounter, which established a cadre policy and called for political education.
And the New Cadre? He, or she, has to “defeat the concept that service in local government means catching the last coach of the gravy train”, be honest and self-critical, guard against corruption of fellow-comrades, serve the public and participate in communities to “hear their cries and act timeously”.
One who seems to understand her duties is Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, who descends from the Olympus of the Cabinet to become Motlanthe’s deputy. “ANC cadres consider deployment as a responsibility,” she told the SABC.
The anguished introspection came as a number of Old Cadres remain under a cloud. ANC MP Tony Yengeni is on long leave pending his trial on fraud charges linked to the arms deal. And Deputy President Jacob Zuma is under investigation over an alleged attempt to secure a R500 000 bribe from an arms contractor.
Re-elected ANC president Thabo Mbeki took up the theme. Singing the old refrain of an “RDP of the soul”, he slammed “careerists” who accumulated wealth at the expense of the poor.
How is the New Cadre to be created this time round? Mbeki suggested cadres should be subject to a commitment agreement, while Motlanthe announced that an ANC political education school would be in place within two years. Party disciplinary procedures are to be tightened, and the deployment committee reconstituted.
The next conference is in 2007. Watch this space.