Hon House Chairperson, during my commute this morning I listened to the Auditor-General, AG, speaking on SAfm. After he laid bare the worst audit results in the history of democratic South Africa, he asked something along the lines of: Why is it that people who are not qualified or competent are still put into key positions in government departments? Could it be deliberate?
I know he asked the question rhetorically but I'd like to take this opportunity to provide an answer. The answer is yes! Yes, the rapidly accelerating collapse of our Public Service is the product of the governing party's deliberate effort to capture and hollow out the state.
The truth is that a professional, competent and apolitical Public Service makes it impossible to loot the state into bankruptcy. The governing party knows this; which is why they have deliberately done the exact opposite for the past quarter of a century.
The deliberate plan referred to by the AG was formally codified by the ANC at its Mafikeng conference in 1997. They even gave it an appropriately Soviet-sounding title of cadre deployment. After its 1997 conference, the governing party resolved to deploy cadres to various organs of the state, including the Public Service and to other centres of power in society.
Fast-forward to this debate today where we are supposed to consider the performance of our Public Service after 22 years of cadre deployment. This includes that, as the
AG reported yesterday, the 2018-19 national and provincial audit outcomes are the worst in the history of democratic South Africa. Yet, in the same year, the Public Service paid R2,6 billion in so-called performance bonuses to its cadres, a 68% increase on the year before.
Afrikaans:
Dit gebeur terwyl die Staatsdiens tans R7,1 miljard aan die helde en heldinne wat werk in besighede dwarsoor Suid-Afrika skep, skuld.
Sedert 1 Januarie 2018 het hierdie regering ook slegs 10% van die Staatsdienskommissie se aanbevelings gemplimenteer. En alhoewel Minister Mboweni ons verlede maand gewaarsku het dat die staat se salarisrekening van R630 miljard binnekort gaan veroorsaak dat ons meer geld spandeer net aan rente op staatskuld, as in onderwys, gesondheid en polisiring, word meer as 29 000 miljoener kaders steeds elke maand getrou betaal.
English:
Cadres over country, every time! Let me hasten to add though that this Parliament is also deeply implicated in
the injustices of cadre deployment because it has forsaken its sacred oversight duty. Hot on the heels of the deployment of the convicted liar Bathabile Dlamini, two days ago the parliamentary committee on Public Service and Administration recommended Zanele Hlatshwayo, a former ANC mayor who destroyed Pietermaritzburg, to become a Public Service commissioner. This was despite her saying in the interview that she will never stop being political, even though the Constitution says the Public Service Commission, PSC, is supposed to be independent, impartial and that commissioners may not be members of political organisations. As usual, Luthuli House chose incompetent cadre Zanele over Kevin Malunga, the highly- qualified current Deputy Public Protector, who also applied for the position.