The calm before the ANC conference storm
It’s now less than a month before the ANC’s national conference, at which it will elect leaders to steer the party towards the next national elections.
My brain is aiming for an end-of-year break and dreading the chaos, mudslinging and jostling for power and positions that have become par for the course at the party’s national jamboree. It’s craven, crass, ugly stuff, hidden under the guise of striving for “a better life for all” South Africans.
This dream might have been an honest impetus for the founding mothers and fathers of the ANC, who in exile and with allies and secret members inside the country displaced the apartheid regime.
Sadly, after being voted into power for five consecutive terms, we all know that the better life for all has become a bunfight for a much better life for ANC cadres, their friends and families.
Our civil service is the vrot fruit of cadre deployment. It’s one of the reasons so many things have fallen apart in every ANC-led government department, from the smallest to the largest.
Fortunately, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in his State Capture report called cadre deployment out for its throttling of service delivery.
The Cabinet has recently adopted a policy framework that signals the death knell of this practice. Its executive summary asserts that “cadre deployment practices must be reconsidered for merit-based recruitment and selection in the public sector”.
I cannot emphasise what a relief it will be if Cabinet turns this framework into action. If merit-based appointments do become the norm, I hope that the criteria for choosing people for public service jobs will not just be based on professional skills and qualifications, but also on an assessment of their commitment to serve the public effectively and compassionately.
There are also green shoots of hope in the
National Prosecuting
Authority’s circling of the corrupt who were ensconced in State Capture. But it’s just green shoots, and the task of watering and nurturing them is in our hands.
In this week’s DM168, our political writers Queenin Masuabi and Chris Makhaye have made valiant efforts to interview various ANC leaders and members and read between the lines of their rhetoric to give you an idea of the current state of play in the ANC before its conference.
Read what they found and write to me at heather@dailymaverick.co.za to share your views on the ANC, the opposition and what solutions you might have for fixing what’s broken in our beloved country.
Yours in defence of truth, Heather