The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is considering expanding appointments in key strategic state entities, as well as government departments, to members of other political parties, according to BusinessLive.

The report says this forms part of proposals ahead of the party’s national policy conference in July and its national elective conference scheduled for later in 2022, and are part of the governing party’s renewal strategy aimed at improving its tainted image.

The ANC says deployment of people to the public service should be subjected to a new process ‘to enable the ANC to access the best human resources to make it a successful governing party, which delivers to our people’.

‘Consideration should also be given to introducing a more objective, fact-based performance management system of all ANC public representatives. So, we retain those performing well and not lose skills because of subjective processes and factional activity in the ANC,” the party says.

BusinessLive notes that (this) is a deviation from ANC tradition, which has previously seen the party’s deployment committee recommend the appointments of ANC members to the public service. It adds that the tradition came under fire at the Zondo Commission where President Cyril Ramaphosa conceded that people had been appointed to positions for which they were not qualified.

IOL reported earlier this month that the ANC acknowledged in discussion documents that ‘(current) trajectories and modelling exercises project the ANC to dip below 50% in the 2024 national elections, for the first time since 1994’.

administrator

IRR head of media Michael Morris was a newspaper journalist from 1979 to 2017, covering, among other things, the international campaign against apartheid, from London, and, as a political correspondent in Cape Town, South Africa’s transition to democracy. He has written three books, the last being Apartheid, An Illustrated History, and has an MA in Creative Writing from UCT. He writes a fortnightly column in Business Day.