The African National Congress (ANC) has come to its senses by drafting a Bill which would stop cadres from holding senior municipal jobs, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday.
“After some 13 years of systematically and deliberately trying to bring every public entity under its direct control and attempting to create a parallel authority to the Constitution, it appears the ANC is finally starting to come to its senses,” DA shadow minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Willem Doman said.
The DA said the Bill was a clear indication and admission that cadre deployment was damaging state institutions in the pursuit of power and patronage.
A report issued by the cooperative governance department at the beginning of the year found positions in local government were being used to dispense patronage, the result of which was widespread corruption and maladministration.
Doman said it was encouraging that President Jacob Zuma appeared to be leading the process but wanted the ANC to end cadre deployment as a whole.
He said the party needed to dissolve the cadre deployment resolution that it adopted at its 1997 Mafikeng conference.
City Press reported on Sunday that Zuma wanted to stop cadres from holding senior municipal management jobs by amending the Municipal Systems Act.
The article said amendments to the Act were contained in a Bill submitted to Parliament by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka, and would be discussed next week.
The amendments defined — “chairpersons, deputy chairpersons, secretaries, deputy secretaries or treasurers of the party nationally, or any province, region or other area in which the party operates” — as those who would be excluded from senior management positions.
It also banned the employment of top municipal managers who did not have basic skills and forced municipalities to report to Shiceka and the relevant provincial minister when city managers were appointed.
Depoliticising local govt
Stability and professionalism would be created in municipalities by introducing rules that regulated the firing of managers.
Shiceka said the Bill was meant to “depoliticise” and “professionalise” local government.
“At national and provincial level there is no head of department who is an office bearer of a political party … if you want to become a politician, do that”.
Zuma faced resistance at next month’s national general council (NGC) because local leaders relied on municipal jobs for their income by securing patronage and controlling tenders.
The article said ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal and the North West were likely to support the Bill.
Ekurhuleni ANC secretary Bobo Mokoena fully backed the amendments, saying contests in municipalities often filtered through to the party.
Free State and Eastern Cape secretaries were not as optimistic.
Free State ANC provincial secretary Sibongile Besani said amendments would go against constitutional rights of ANC members and added it was unfortunate Shiceka had gone to Parliament instead of before the NGC.
Eastern Cape regional secretary General Moso said changes were opportunistic and undermined the intelligence of ANC members.
Mpumalanga was divided on the amendments.
The article said the matter would not feature in the ANC’s NGC as Zuma and the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) had already set out the changes in January.
‘The January 8 statement is an NEC statement, the highest decision-making body between conferences and people affected in municipalities favoured the changes”.