Johannesburg – Cadre deployment is set to take on a new meaning after the ANC resolved to develop a framework to hold its comrades serving in government to account, but political analysts are not convinced.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said this would ensure the ruling party was at the centre of giving “strategic guidance to government, and stronger oversight on the implementation of ANC resolutions in government”.
He was briefing the media following a meeting of the national executive committee (NEC) in Pretoria at the weekend.
The government’s lack of capacity to deliver on its mandate was raised as a “matter of serious concern by the NEC”.
“It is the view of the NEC that many challenges currently experienced are a direct consequence of the glaring lack of capacity within the state. The very fact that the courts are playing a more interventionist role in governance is reflective of our role in abdicating our governance responsibilities to the judiciary,” said Mantashe.
Judicial overreach, he said, occurred in instances where the “executive and the legislature fail to deal adequately with matters before them”.
Mantashe had come under fire in the past for his remarks on judges who he reportedly claimed were counter-revolutionaries who were reversing the transformation gains through precedents.
The DA has been accused of abusing the court system by resorting to the legal route to settle political squabbles.
Wits University political analyst Professor Susan Booysen said it would seem that deployed cadres in the government were “beyond accountability”, adding it would be a tough task to hold to account people who were “not doing their jobs anyway”.
Another political analyst, Dumisani Hlophe, said: “The challenge with the ANC is that there are too many ANCs in the ANC. In other words, they are called factions. It’s very difficult for the ANC to speak with one voice. It’s impossible that they can have that type of arrangement that they are talking about.”
He cited examples where Mantashe had said something in public, but was later contradicted by his comrades. “A few examples: Mantashe said (former Eskom boss Brian) Molefe is not suitable to go to Parliament. But we know that Molefe is in Parliament now."
"Mantashe told Andile Lungisa not to contest the chairperson position in Nelson Mandela Bay. But he went ahead and won, and President Jacob Zuma endorsed him,” he said.
Hlophe was sceptical that things would be different with the proposed framework.
“I’m not convinced that it will work. We shouldn’t get carried away with public pronouncements, we must look at what has happened before.
"That will give a direction of what will happen based on what the politicians are pronouncing. I’m not convinced."
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