iSERVICE

Why cadre deployment must stay

Musa Xulu defends the ANC policy of appointing party loyalists to key positions

I have been reading with keen interest and listening to the ANC's detractors (namely the various self styled political analysts, commentators, columnists and media know-it-alls who claim to know the ANC more than its own members). These people, who still want to maintain the status quo in terms of preventing economic transformation and/or ushering in of a truly emancipated Black majority from occupying key government positions, do not cease to amaze me.

In true Imperialist tendencies and in-line with the sunset clause provisions, they want these positions to be reserved for members who come from minorities. What with Adv Nikki de Havilland's formal complaint to the public protector and the public service commission in which she effectively motivated as to why cadre deployment needs to go away (see here). Her thinking is that since the ANC can't be beaten democratically, she must fight to prevent the party of the people from appointing cadres who will carry its mandate.

People like her and many others, like to resort to the courts and other state institutions in order to force their will upon our people. Such an attempt is of course meant to deny the true congress of people (i.e. ANC) and/or its president from appointing candidates of their choice, especially those who will unreservedly carry the party's mandate.

With the ANC having won the elections, many others have entered the fray in condemning the ANC's cadre deployment policy. These people are going back to their old tricks of rubbishing everything that the ANC does in true conformance to the adage "old habits die hard".

That complaint by Adv de Havilland amounted to a futile exercise of trying to manipulate appointments of key government officials in order that those imposed on the ANC can sabotage its election promises as spelt out in its manifesto. The ANC deserves to appoint its own cadres in government, they have earned their stripes.

As a country we have recently surpassed Brazil as a country with the worst income inequalities in the World therefore in order for this income gap to be bridged, the ANC as a ruling party must appoint its own tried and tested cadres.

The ANC has been living true to the ideals of the NDR and MDM but it still needs to strive towards realising all the ideals as enshrined in the Freedom Charter.

Accordingly, Adv de Havilland and many of her ilk are barking at the wrong tree because the deployment of cadres is an internal party process which in my view is not open for discussion by those who are outside the ANC structures.

I know that this will not please the opinionated lot, least of all the opposition parties but that is the nature of life (i.e. you can't please everyone no matter how accommodative you may be).

In the statement "many others", I'm referring particularly to the heartless/crass capitalists plus liberals who went on a relentless campaign to vilify the ANC president but failed to stop him 'cause he nonetheless became our state president. They now accuse the ruling party of moral bankruptcy and warn that the deployment of ANC cadres is not good for our country as it will cause a moral decay (see article).

Interestingly, the reason that our country is in a state that it is in now is because of the historical baggage which was caused by the apartheid regime. Fortunately, despite pouring millions in their carefully hatched strategies to stop the ANC's Zuma led machinery, they still failed dismally to achieve this evil plan (as we had correctly predicted they would fail).

Through the ballot paper, the ANC proved that it carries the wishes and aspirations of the majority of South Africans. These prophets of doom are unfazed by this show of no confidence in their parties though; hence they are now trying to hold the ANC to ransom, and emotionally blackmailing it by suggesting that it must not only look at ANC members or use cadre deployment in filling government positions or in state organs.

The overwhelming majority given to the ANC by voters, albeit it was slightly short of the technically convenient mark of 66.67% for the apartheid architects as per the constitution, proved that the detractors have no influence. The mandate of an unprecedented 11.6 million strong "Yes we can" voters in support of the ANC's election slogan "working together we can do more" can't be ignored by the opposition parties, certainly not by the ruling party.

The reality is that people want meaningful and far reaching economic changes in their lives which dictates to the ANC that it must choose cadres who understand its policies and above all have no hidden agendas. The voters in essence agreed with the ANC that indeed more can be achieved if we work together as South Africans. This doesn't seem to sit well with some proletarian sections of our society though as this means that we may eventually realise the dream of a better life for all.

The 65.9% affirmative voters were a slap in the faces of those who conspired to stop Msholozi's ascendancy to the highest throne in the land. The South Africans voters, Blacks; Whites; Coloureds and Indians, all refused to be swayed by the cheap politics of the opposition parties which were duly assisted by the media through its disinformation campaign in order to misrepresent what the ANC stood and continues to stand for.

It is worth noting that no other political party came close to achieving the same feat as the ANC, with the DA gaining a distant 2.9 million vis-à-vis a pool of 23 million eligible voters which by all accounts is a paltry achievement. Of course this figure pales even further in comparison to the total population of 49 or so million citizens as it amounts to a mere 5.9% thereof as opposed to about 23.83% of the total population as was achieved by the ANC (population figures were taken from the latest Stats SA census and rounded off to the nearest million).

One could ask as to why am I reminding everyone about these obvious statistics and the answer lies in the fact that the opposition parties have amnesia. They at times think that they speak for the majority whereas they are far from it and are instead miniscule. It follows that their expectations to have proportional representation in government institutions is unreasonable.

They lament the fact that the ANC deploys its own cadres yet whenever these very political parties are in power in various municipalities, even in the Western Cape where the DA is in charge, they too deployed their own trusted cadres. So then, why the fuss when the ANC replicates this self serving modus operandi after all the ANC deploys from the majority? Well at the heart of their groans and moans is the Imperialist agenda which seeks to control our economy and the means of production.

Sadly, in their eyes these must be owned by a minority irrespective of whether such minority commands the respect and following of the general populace. Further to this, they squeal because these are political parties which thrive on hypocrisy; where stuff that doesn't serve their interests is viewed as a taboo and stuff that could otherwise be construed as serving a party agenda is deemed wrong as long as it is not they who are doing it.

How exactly does the opposition expect the ANC to carry its mandate and fulfil its manifesto promises if they employ an equal number of officials who hate it than those who support its cause? How can they expect the ANC to overlook their own capable cadres and demand that it widens the net to include people who would surely sabotage its government programmes? How do they even hope to be taken seriously by the ANC if they can't even convince voters to take them seriously?

These are people who once claimed a hollow victory in that they succeeded in denying the ANC a two-thirds majority but on the contrary a closer scrutiny of the events and processes in parliament reveals that the ANC gets just about every decision it wants in-line with their electoral mandate.

These people are clearly missing the point then aren't they, but then again it doesn't surprise me because they never grasp any simple point anyway. For their benefit let me clarify it and remind them that South Africans from all walks of life believe that the ANC is doing a good job hence their willingness to overwhelmingly renew its mandate.

The media as expected (and the DA in particular as usual) jumped on the bandwagon in condemning the deployment policy, at times using various front organisations to do so. They made all sorts of accusations and insinuations in trying to tell a story of an ANC that is rewarding party loyalty ahead of capability but this assertion couldn't be further from the truth.

Their incessant cries for proportional representation in government structures will never materialise and the sooner they forget this subject the better. One is by no means suggesting that the ANC should ignore capable potential government officials from other parties.

What I am saying further is that if the ANC has its own capable cadres, rather than sacrifice them in the name of inclusivity it should take an unapologetic approach about appointing them in whatever capacity it deems fit.

This brings me to another subject of the means of production where I, like Julius Malema, want to urge the ANC not be apologetic and implement a 51% state ownership of these mines. I agree with him in that our land was stolen as such we don't owe anyone an explanation but since I am considerate, I believe that we should buy back these shares (not at market values though).

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