{"id":512614,"date":"2021-08-12T13:23:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T11:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=512614"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:23:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T11:23:50","slug":"proposed-bill-will-make-it-a-crime-not-to-employ-a-government-official-on-merit-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/512614\/proposed-bill-will-make-it-a-crime-not-to-employ-a-government-official-on-merit-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed bill will make it a crime not to employ a government official on merit in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Alliance (DA) has tabled its &#8216;End Cadre Deployment Bill&#8217; with the speaker\u2019s office in parliament, aiming to tackle issues around government appointments.<\/p>\n<p>The draft legislation, officially known as the Administration Laws General Amendment Bill, will now be referred to the relevant portfolio committee for consideration and public consultation.<\/p>\n<p>Members of parliament will then have the opportunity to vote on the draft law.<\/p>\n<p>The opposition political party said that the bill would:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make it a criminal offence to appoint someone based on political loyalty rather than demonstrated merit;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Make it illegal for anyone holding office in a political party to work in a government department;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Direct the Public Service Commission (PSC) to ensure that all appointments are based strictly on merit;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Give the PSC the power to take remedial actions against corrupt officials;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Make the PSC wholly independent of the Department of Public Service and Administration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;The DA calls on all South Africans who want to see an end to corruption and the creation of a state that actually gets things done to express their support for the End Cadre Deployment Bill by sending an email to speaker@parliament.gov.za,&#8221; the party said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Cadre-Bill.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared before the state capture commission this week, to provide testimony on how the African National Congress (ANC) appoints officials to government.<\/p>\n<p>The commission&#8217;s evidence leader sifted through minutes of the ANC&#8217;s Deployment Committee meetings &#8211; availed by the president &#8211; peeling back the layers of how the committee operates.<\/p>\n<p>According to the commission, the ANC&#8217;s practice or policy towards appointments is done through the party&#8217;s Deployment Committee, which decides and instructs on who should be deployed to the government. These names are then recommended by the relevant authority and communicated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-08-11-ramaphosas-testimony-exposes-the-vast-contours-of-the-ancs-shadow-state\/\">This has been characterised as a parallel or &#8216;shadow&#8217; state<\/a>, where the party&#8217;s structures in effect override public appointment processes while remaining opaque and out of public view.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLoyalty to the ruling party, party membership, and compliance with party prescripts is an issue relevant to the appointment,\u201d said the commission&#8217;s evidence leader Paul Pretorius.<\/p>\n<p>The DA said the ANC&#8217;s cadre deployment policies have &#8220;led to the widespread corruption that is rife within our government&#8221; and that the Administration Laws General Amendment Bill will serve to end the &#8220;destructive practice&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the president stamped his authority over the government with a cabinet revamp and sweeping changes to securities agencies, boosting his sway over economic policy, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa\u2019s tiny winning margin to lead the ruling African National Congress in late 2017 left him in a power struggle with a party faction allied to his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, and its Secretary-General Ace Magashule. That\u2019s now shifted with Zuma jailed for contempt of court and Magashule suspended pending a graft trial.<\/p>\n<p>Freed of the burden of placating his opponents, the president brought in close allies in a 5 August<span id=\"6b0be224-f6cb-11eb-b538-fa163efa6fcf\"> reshuffle<\/span> that introduced four new ministers and reassigned six others. Enoch Godongwana comes in as finance minister in place of Tito Mboweni, who quit, Mondli Gungubele is the minister in the presidency and parliamentary Speaker Thandi Modise becomes defense minister, Bloomberg said.<\/p>\n<p>The ANC, which has ruled South Africa since the end of white minority rule in 1994, is due to hold internal elections late next year and Ramaphosa is expected to seek another five-year term as leader. Retaining the post would ensure that he\u2019ll be the ruling party\u2019s presidential candidate in national elections scheduled for 2024.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/512154\/governments-plan-to-fix-eskom-and-end-load-shedding-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Government\u2019s plan to fix Eskom and end load shedding in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The opposition Democratic Alliance has officially tabled its End Cadre Deployment Bill with the speaker\u2019s office in parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":512654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-512614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512614"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512658,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512614\/revisions\/512658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}