DM168 Cover 19 Nov 2022
Dear DM168 readers,
As I write this letter on Friday, 18 November, it is 27 days before the governing party’s national conference on 16 December. Where they will elect leaders to steer the party into the next national elections.
My brain is aiming for an end-of-year break and dreading the chaos, mudslinging and jostling for power and positions that has become par for the course at the ANC’s national jamboree. It’s craven, crass, ugly stuff, hidden under the guise of striving for “a better life for all” South Africans.
This dream might have been an honest impetus for the founding mothers and fathers of the ANC who, in exile and in collaboration with allies and secret members inside the country (remember, the ANC was banned until 2 February 1990), displaced the apartheid regime.
Sadly, after being voted into power for five consecutive terms, we all know that the better life for all has become a bunfight for a much better life for ANC cadres, their friends and families.
Our civil service (actually, anyone who has spent a day waiting at a clinic or standing in a Home Affairs queue won’t disagree with me calling it an uncivil service) is the vrot fruit of cadre deployment. It’s one of the reasons so many things have fallen apart in every ANC-led government department from the smallest to the largest.
Fortunately for us all, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in his Zondo report called cadre deployment out for its throttling of service delivery. And late last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet adopted a policy framework that signals a death knell for cadre deployment. The framework’s executive summary asserts that "The cadre deployment practices must be reconsidered for merit-based recruitment and selection in the public sector".
Cabinet getting this framework into action
Dear readers, I cannot emphasise what a relief it will be if Cabinet gets this framework into action. If it happens, I will personally sing the hallelujah chorus.
If merit-based appointments do become the norm, I hope that when people are chosen for public service jobs, the criteria will not just be based on professional skills and qualifications, but also on an assessment of commitment to serve the public, based on proper research into the candidate’s background.
Far too many public-facing government employees are more interested in knock-off time and whoever is pinging heart emojis on their cellphones than on efficiently, effectively and compassionately serving the public.
Together with the pending demise of cadre deployment, there are also green shoots of hope in the NPA ID’s circling of the corrupt who were ensconced in State Capture.
It’s just green shoots. Watering and nurturing these shoots is in all our hands, I’m afraid. How to tackle our many problems is the theme of Daily Maverick’s annual The Gathering, to be held at Cape Town’s CTICC on Thursday, 24 November.
Under the theme “Because every problem has a solution”, South Africa’s top experts from a variety of sectors will gather to offer their knowledge, ideas and goodwill to light the way out of the morass we’re in. They will discuss solutions for:
- Energy beyond Eskom;
- Economy and business environment;
- How to prepare for the next pandemic;
- How to fix the Security Cluster;
- How to deliver to the poorest of the poor;
- How to fight our common hopelessness, and, finally;
- How to transform our political system.
Join us at the venue by booking your ticket here or join us online by clicking here.
You may wonder what business us muck-raking people of the pen and keyboard have to do with solving problems. Well, being part of finding solutions to the many challenges is as much our job as journalists as keeping a check on those in power – be it in government, all political parties, businesses or institutions. We do this because we also live here. This is our home. And we do truly dream of a better future for all.
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Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations
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Yes, problems such as load shedding will still be with us for a while, and sadly, bullshit shedding will also be with us, as those who infiltrated the ANC for a piece of the public purse and the privilege of power will make loud noises trashing their ANC foes in the build-up to their end-of-year conference.
In this week’s DM168, political writers Queenin Masuabi and Chris Makhaye have made valiant efforts to interview various ANC leaders and members, to read between the lines of rhetoric in order to give you an idea of what the current state of play is in the ANC, 27 days before their conference.
Read what they found in this week’s DM168 and write to me at heather@dailymaverick.co.za to share your views on the ANC, the opposition and what solutions you might have for fixing what’s broken in our beloved country.
Yours in defence of truth,
Heather
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.
DM168 Cover 19 Nov 2022