Shiny suits wreak havoc

IF THE ANC were not already convinced that it was high time it reviewed its "cadre deployment" practice, the events of last Tuesday should have changed its mind.

There we were - I and two other journalists - chatting outside a Metro FM studio that evening when a call came through on a radio producer's phone.

We were about three minutes from going on air to discuss the role journalists have played in covering what has become known as "The Road to Mangaung".

Regular listeners to talkshows on this radio station would know how highly critical many of its regular callers are of the "white-controlled" media and the journalists - especially black journalists - who work for those media houses.

We were expecting a torrid time from the largely ANC-sympathetic listenership.

But nothing could have prepared us for the drama that followed that phone call.

I won't bore you with details, save to say that the sudden stoppage of the show by senior SABC executives did not only expose the extent of editorial interference at the public broadcaster, it also revealed some of the bizarre consequences of cadre deployment gone wrong.

If the ANC is to be believed - and I have no reason to doubt party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe's statement that Luthuli House, the ANC head office, had nothing to do with the canning of the show - the SABC decided to shut down the show on the basis that it would be unfair to the governing party even though there was not a single complaint from that organisation.

The shiny suits at the public broadcaster are so eager to appease Luthuli House that they would choose to make complete fools of themselves by canning a show that had no potential whatsoever for harming the ANC.

In fact, the incompetent way in which it was all done - instructing host Sakina Kamwendo not to go ahead with the discussion when she had already announced it to her listeners - did more damage to the ANC's and the government's reputation than anything that could have been said by the three of us.

The suits see themselves as "deployed cadres" - the eyes and ears of Luthuli House and the Union Buildings - rather than as people employed to run the public broadcaster.

There is some merit in those who have been elected to positions of power wanting to appoint like-minded individuals to strategic positions in the state.

This helps ensure that the policies, on which basis they were voted into office, are implemented in the government.

This is the practice in many countries, especially those, like ours, that are still in a transitional stage and have not built strong and independent state institutions.

But should cadre deployment extend to the public broadcaster, an institution that is supposed to be impartial?

The major problem with the ANC's cadre deployment policy over the past two decades has been that it has been so badly implemented.

Individuals without the required skills get appointed to positions of power and authority on the basis of their political connections.

Over the years, we have seen many institutions, from public enterprises to municipalities, collapse because unsuitable personalities were in charge whereas those with the required expertise were ignored.

Acutely aware of their shortcomings, the unskilled deployed cadres resort to using their positions and institutions to appease those who appointed them instead of carrying out their duties.

The encouraging news is that there seems to be growing acceptance in the ANC that this practice is harmful for the country and the party.

As party delegates prepare for the ANC national conference, which starts on Sunday, one of the documents they will be discussing deals with this very issue.

With the party expected to declare the next 10 years as a "decade of the cadre", much of the organisational renewal discussion document prepared for the conference deals with the "cadre policy".

In the document, the party states that it will not succeed in power unless it "continuously produces a contingent of cadres who are conscious, competent, committed, disciplined and conscientious".

Over the coming years, it says, "deployment should always be preceded by systematic academic, ideological and ethical training ."

More important, the document explicitly proposes that "cadre deployment should consider academic qualifications" of those being considered for posts.

Party structures in Gauteng seem to support this. On Sunday, they argued that no ANC members should be elected or appointed to any post unless they had been suitably trained for that role.

But will these proposals be adopted by the rest of the delegates at Mangaung?

Probably yes.

The party is very big on right-sounding policies. It is the implementation of those policies that is the problem.

Unless there is political will on the side of those who are at the helm of the party to see to it that appointments at the SABC and other state-controlled entities are purely on merit and skill, we will continue to see important institutions stumbling from one comical blunder to another because of undeserving cadres being put in charge.