Cape Town, 20 January 2010: The Congress of the People feels vindicated by the ruling party's public acknowledgement that cadre deployment is unfeasible, and their intentions to abandon the cadre deployment policy which has had adverse impact on service delivery, in particular local government.

COPE notes and welcomes the admission by the ANC's spokesperson Jackson Mthembu in an interview on SABC's SAFM with Ike Phaahla yesterday, consistent with the January 8 statement by President Zuma's assertions that the party's cadre deployment policy has failed the citizens of this country in various municipalities.

COPE MP, Mlindi Nhanha, the spokesperson on Public Enterprises called on President Zuma to extend this observation beyond local government following this long awaited acknowledgement. "As we speak, 60 - 65% of the State Owned Enterprise CEOs have been suspended. These SOE's are headed by acting chiefs and we suspect that many of them may be riddled with corruption. This is as a result of the cadre deployment policy. If the President was to heed the people's call, this may be the beginning of a new era for SOEs", said Nhanha.

The Congress of the People has since its inception in 2008 campaigned against this sorry state of affairs, and has consistently warned government about the fact that deploying loyal cadres to positions which require technical skills and specific expertise will only result in a dysfunctional local government system. When COPE made these calls during the election campaign, it was seen as political grand standing, but now we are cautiously optimistic that the government appears to have surrendered to common sense on this issue.

COPE firmly believes in loyalty but not at the expense of the vulnerable citizens, many of whom still do not have access to basic human needs such as water and sanitation 15 years on into the new dispensation.

He also said, "now that the ruling party has seen the light, COPE will be watching with hawk eyes to ensure that they see through their latest position on cadre deployment policy".

"It is appalling that as a country, South Africa is sitting with high numbers of unemployed graduates while the country is still in dire need of people with critical and scarce skills. All the ANC has done in the past in response to this problem is to issue patronage and deploy its loyal cadres to strategic positions, despite the obvious absence of the required skills to do the job", Nhanha said further.

COPE will be conducting its own spot skills audit of municipal managers of the 283 municipalities to verify the seriousness of the ruling party's intentions to root out rampant corruption and increase service delivery in local government. COPE members on the ground and in municipalities will be a good source for cause to continuously bring the inept municipal managers to the attention of the President and the minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

COPE believes that what needs to be done to speedy up service delivery
in local government is to:

● Professionalise the civil service by conducting an honest skills
audit to be overseen by the Auditor General's Office and then hire and
place competent and qualified people in all positions; and
● Stop with immediate effect the redeployment of civil servants to
other state departments and institutions who are found guilty with of
corruption.