Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape has ripped into the provincial government over the appointment of Tim Harris as the new Wesgro chief executive, saying he has joined a long list of DA-deployed cadres.
Harris, who works at the City of Cape Town, will take over from current chief executive Nils Flaatten, whose contract expires in April.
The ANC criticised the move, saying Premier Helen Zille continuously points to cadre deployment in the ANC, but says nothing when it takes place in her party.
Questioning what it called the “DA’s blatant redeployment” of its cadre Harris to Wesgro, ANC MPL Sharon Davids said it was well known that Harris was Zille’s “blue-eyed favourite”.
And she added that Harris now joins the long list of DA deployed cadres, “like apparatchiks Ryan Coetzee, Nick Clelland-Stokes and Zak Mbhele”.
The ANC said Harris, who in May left Parliament as the DA’s finance spokesman, was almost immediately appointed into the City of Cape Town, “as a super shadow mayor in another jobs-for-pals, non-existent position with an exorbitant remuneration package”.
The ACDP agreed with the ANC.
“This is exactly what the DA has been criticising the ANC for. While I have no comment on Harris’s abilities and experience to do the job, only time will tell if he is the right candidate,” the ACDP’s Grant Haskin said.
“As current CEO, Nils Flaatten was excellent and definitely not a cadre deployment,” he said.
Economic Opportunities MEC Allan Winde rubbished the ANC’s claims, saying the party has once again shown it has no clue about processes and was only interested in mud-slinging.
“It is disgusting that the ANC is calling into question a process run from start to finish by the Wesgro board under the chairmanship of Professor Brian Figaji. Unlike at national government, where some of our entities including the SABC have been crippled by cadre deployment, this was a process which saw no interference whatsoever and was conducted with the utmost integrity,” Winde said.
Harris could not be reached for comment.
Cape Argus