Africa-Press – South-Africa. Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi says the ANC’s cadre deployment policy is not the government’s policy.
“Insofar as I know, we have not been talking about cadre deployment in the state. We have been talking about interviews, and we go for the right candidates as chosen by the panel. If the ANC has its own cadre deployment policy, [then that would be] an ANC policy. That is not a government policy. That is as far as I know.”
At a briefing in Parliament On Tuesday, Nxesi detailed plans about the government’s efforts to professionalise the public service.
This came on the back of President Cyril Ramaphosa tabling his implementation plan on the Zondo Commission’s recommendations with Parliament on Saturday and addressing the public on the plan on Sunday evening.
In the section of his implementation dealing with the public service, Ramaphosa, who chaired the ANC’s deployment committee from 2012 to 2017 when state capture was at its height, doesn’t mention the role of the governing party at all.
Presenting his final state capture report, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said cadre deployment was unconstitutional and unlawful and, by Ramaphosa’s own admission, could be abused to facilitate corruption and state capture.
He dismissed Ramaphosa and ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe’s justification of the policy when they testified before the commission.
Meanwhile, Nxesi also announced that Presidency director-general Phindile Baleni would be designated head of public administration.
“To stabilise the political-administrative interface challenges experienced, Cabinet has resolved that the director-general in the Presidency will be designated as head of public administration (HOPA).
“In the provinces, this function will be designated to the directors-general in the office of the premier. The HOPA will assist the president and premiers in the management of career incidents of heads of departments and serve as a mediation mechanism in order to stabilise the political-administration interface,” Nxesi said.
According to Nxesi, the move is part of overall efforts to improve the retention of HoDs and create stability at the HOD level.
He dismissed the assertion that the government was creating a super director-general with the Baleni designation.
Department of Public Service and Administration director-general Yoliswa Makhasi said: “There is nothing stopping the president from delegating the responsibilities to the DG in the Presidency. It’s the work that the DG is doing in any case. If a DG has a challenge in terms of the relationship with the minister, or the minister has a challenge, the first person they are likely to talk to is the DG in the Presidency.”
On changes to the municipal workforce, Nxesi said the tenure of municipal managers should be delinked from the political term.
According to Nxesi, this would ensure continuity of the municipal administration and improved service delivery.
“The Department of Cooperative Governance will work on measures to ensure that there is uniformity to the conditions of services for HoDs and municipal managers and the introduction of a rigorous process for recruitment, selection, training and development, performance management and reviews, and consequence management for non-compliance and non-performance,” he said.
Furthermore, the proposed framework proposes that board appointments to state-owned entities be merit-based.
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