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Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance, today defended her earlier remarks that municipalities have to appoint the 'right cadres’.

She made this statement in June while addressing the ANC’s OR Tambo School of Leadership.

Responding to Democratic Alliance (DA) criticism in the debate on her department’s budget vote, the Minister rejected the idea that “cadres” are necessarily unprofessional.

“Cadres” refer to deployed ANC members in government, including the civil service and other bodies requiring political impartiality and technical expertise.

The minister, if her remarks are to be taken at face value, seems incapable of understanding why municipal engineers, planners and managers cannot simply be drawn from the ranks of the ANC.

But outside of ANC circles there is now a growing consensus that the party’s cadre policy has destroyed the ability of departments, state-owned entities and municipalities to deliver services.

The practice also contravenes the parts of the Constitution requiring a politically impartial public service, as confirmed by the High Court ruling in Mlokoti v Amathole District Municipality.

In January President Cyril Ramaphosa raised expectations that the government had finally caught on, when he said that ‘[w]e are committed to end the practice of poorly qualified individuals being parachuted into positions of authority through political patronage.'

But, as usual, Minister Dlamini-Zuma seems to be rebuffing the President or simply reminding South Africa that we have been sold a false dawn.

The Minister also refused to comment on the document leaked from her department in which the proposal is made for permanent command councils with executive powers, all under the guise of the so-called District Model.

The onus is now on the President to set the record straight: is Minister Dlamini-Zuma speaking for his government on cadre deployment in municipalities and elsewhere, or is he serious about building a capable state?

Issued by The DA