The DA’s cure for cadre deployment

19 September 2023

The DA’s Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, Dr. Leon Schreiber MP, delivered the following speech during the Second Reading of the Public Administration Laws General Amendment Bill in Parliament this afternoon.

Honourable Speaker,

Over the past term, this Parliament has repeatedly been presented with evidence of the devastating consequences of cadre deployment.

The Zondo Commission found that cadre deployment laid the foundation for state capture.

The National Framework for Professionalising the Public Sector recommended – and I quote – that “deployment practices ought to be ditched in favour of a merit-based recruitment and selection system.”

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed that it is illegal for the ANC to keep cadre deployment records secret from the people of South Africa because it impacts on service delivery.

If all of this is still not enough to convince you that it is time to abolish cadre deployment, I invite you to simply go on to the streets and have a five-minute conversation with an ordinary citizen.

You will quickly realise that the people of this country know why Eskom no longer provides them with electricity.

They know why they cannot take the train to work, why police don’t catch criminals, and why there is no longer any water coming out of their taps.

The people of South Africa understand why the social grants they need to survive are no longer paid.

Yes, the people of South Africa know that the suffering they endure at the hands of a corrupt and incompetent state is due to one thing above all else: the virus of cadre deployment.

This virus has infected every part of our lives.

It has rewritten the very DNA of our society.

Instead of a country that embraces skills and celebrates excellence, cadre deployment has given power over us to the very worst among us.

Speaker, the DA proudly presents the cure for cadre deployment to this House today.

The End Cadre Deployment Bill will make it a criminal offence to interfere in public appointment processes.

It will prohibit politicians from working in the civil service.

It will make the Public Service Commission independent and mandate it to enforce merit-based appointments.

And yet, the report proposed by the ANC majority on the Committee on Public Service and Administration regards this Bill as – quote – “undesirable.”

That’s right.

The ANC in this committee openly admits that it does not desire a cure for the cadre deployment virus that is killing South Africa.

Honourable Speaker, we should all be clear on one thing.

Today’s vote is nothing less than a referendum that will show where political parties stand on systemic corruption.

The DA will call for a division and vote against this report and its nonsensical view that a cure for cadre deployment is “undesirable.”

A vote against this report today, is a vote against cadre deployment.

Conversely, any party that votes in favour of this report, will be voting in favour of cadre deployment and corruption.

Any party that votes for this report, will be violating the State Capture Commission’s finding that cadre deployment is unlawful.

This is a moment of truth, especially for the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa.

After all the promises and lip service, a vote for cadre deployment today will expose the true face of the party led by President Ramaphosa.

A vote for this report will confirm that cadre deployment – and the state capture and corruption it causes – is nothing less than the official policy of the African National Congress.

It is time to stand up and be counted.

I call on the ANC to fix the mistake made by its members in the committee, by rejecting this report.

If more than half of Members present in this House vote against the report, we will begin to rescue South Africa from cadre deployment.

Just last week, we saw how different parties put aside narrow politics in order to do the right thing by removing the Public Protector.

Let us do so again today by embracing the cure for cadre deployment.

But let us also be warned.

Any party fails to rise to this occasion, can be assured that voters will harshly punish them next year for having the audacity to openly vote for cadre deployment, corruption and state capture today.

Thank you.

Issued by Leon Schreiber, DA’s Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 19 September 2023