MOSHOESHOE MONARE
LUTHULI House, the ANC’s national headquarters in Joburg, is battling to recruit skilled and senior employees, while some of the staff are redundant.
The party’s secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe – who is also the organisation’s chief administrative officer – said his office did not have “capacity”.
“The salary structure of the ANC cannot compete against both the public and the private sector for the best talent in the market.
“When we fill vacancies, we have to contend with the third- or fourth-best candidate,” he said in an organisational report to the national executive committee, the highest decision-making body between conferences.
“Only the committed cadres of the movement are prepared to sacrifice for the benefit of the organisation.
“At the provincial and regional level, comrades live with their conscience when they accept deployment to the various spheres of government as public representatives, and leave the ANC.”
Mantashe said the ANC was battling to recruit a general manager, at deputy director-general level, and a senior researcher with a PhD.
“We have been looking for a general manager in the head office for some time now. But the few comrades who were head-hunted could not accept our offer,” he said.
Mantashe said the party would conduct an audit to identify the skills needs at Luthuli House.
“In the process, we are discovering… positions that are surplus and add very little value.
“We also identified positions that are filled almost as welfare. The question that we have not started answering is ‘what to do with surplus staff’ as this is premature.
“We redeploy others to the regions and provinces, but that is viewed as offloading head office problems. This must be tempered if we are to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain,” he said.
“We have identified some surplus in administrative skills and (a) dire shortage in analytical and management skills. This constitutes a weakness in the organisation.”
The ANC almost faced a rebellion in Parliament last year when its caucus office declared some of its employees redundant when the party’s parliamentary seats decreased after the 2009 elections.