The Patriotic Alliance has defended its decision to employ only its members as support staff to its deployees in government, calling it common practice.
The party recently advertised job positions through its party networks, calling on its members to apply to thank them for their votes and ushering them into government.
It said preference would be given to coloured males, Indian males, white males, coloured females and people living with disabilities.
Party spokesperson Steve Motale denied this practice was cadre deployment, describing the positions as either political support staff in the offices of public representatives (minister and MEC) or support staff in caucus offices.
“This is common practice and is not cadre deployment. Cadre deployment is when party members are put into government jobs in the core administration of departments in positions that should not be politically aligned but rather focused on professionalism and service delivery.
“They are not administrative staff in governments and do not deal with matters like procurement and public spending, for example. All political parties appoint their chosen staff into these offices and, while they may not always be trusted party members, they almost always are.”
The party believes political office support staff are meant to be politically aligned, which is why they are often recruited directly, as long as they meet or exceed the basic criteria for the job.
“In the case of political support staff, their salaries are paid by the department, and they are on the organigram. They are given contracts linked to the terms of office of their principal, and when the principal leaves office for whatever reason, they leave with him or her.”
Days after the publishing the posts, the Patriotic Youth Alliance congratulated two of its youth league NEC members for being appointed to the minister's office.
Deputy secretary-general Kabelo Pitso and organiser Chad Kramer were congratulated for “taking up space”.
Despite criticism and concerns that the PA should separate party and state, it said nothing it was practising was out of the ordinary in the political landscape.
“This is nothing new. The PA is just being more transparent about it than other parties may have been in the past.
In this new arrangement, some will make mistakes and learn later, some will make missteps. The sensitivity here is that even if you have a conglomerate of parties, an ordinary citizen must see a single coherent government and not a litany of parties
— Prof Somadoda Fikeni, Public Service Commission chairperson
“The employees who will be hired in the PA's caucus and constituency offices will be paid for by the PA directly. Now that the PA is represented provincially and nationally, it receives funding for such staffing from the IEC and the relevant legislature, but we manage the HR processes ourselves, unlike with the support staff.”
Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson Prof Somadoda Fikeni said public servant processes are highly regularised and there are guidelines for appointments.
“If you were applying for your private member's office, a political adviser, then the political principal is given a degree of latitude as their term is tied to yours, there is no security of tenure.
However, Fikeni encouraged executive authorities and public office bearers to utilise entities like the PSC and the department of public service & administration for guidance on what is permissible.
“It is new terrain, just like after new ministers were announced some started pronouncing on policies based on their views and some were influenced by the policies of their manifestos.
“However, because you are trying to create a single administration and single executive, they should all go to the cabinet lekgotla to compare notes and meet legal advisers to see what is permissible,” he said.
Fikeni said the country should expect teething problems as parties and their deployees navigate this new era.
“In this new arrangement, some will make mistakes and learn later, some will make missteps. The sensitivity here is that even if you have a conglomerate of parties, an ordinary citizen must see a single coherent government and not a litany of parties.
“Even if appointing an adviser is left to yourself, you wouldn't want to walk around with a tag of a person from that party. You must create the sense that this person could have been taken from anywhere, even if you know that this person is from your party.
“This is because the effort being made is to try as much as possible to create a cohort of public servants — people whose loyalty is to the constitution before they are loyal to the political party.”
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