Cadre deployment is the DA’s political stunt

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the practice of cadre deployment because this is the norm among many political parties and political systems all over the world.

Countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom are among those that have – and are – implementing the policy.

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Every time in the US, whatever political party between the Republicans or the Democrats win elections, they bring with them their own functionaries.

Same as in the UK, the Labour Party as well as the Conservative Party follow this same trajectory.

Therefore, for the Democratic Alliance (DA) to firstly go to court and demand the ANC’s minutes of cadre deployment meetings and to take further steps to seek to declare cadre deployment unconstitutional, which they have failed to do, is a clear political stunt that aims to gain cheap political points amid the election season.

There is nothing of principle that the DA is trying to fight here for they, too, are practising the very same policy in the Western Cape.

They have deployed their own party loyalists to critical positions in the provincial government and various municipalities.

But for them to stand on top of the mountain and blow a horn of how unconstitutional cadre deployment is, is just hypocritical of them and a ploy to distract South Africans from issues of true importance.

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They have gone out of their way to paint the so-called policy as negatively as possible and rid it of its actual true meaning.

For cadre deployment is when a political party that has received the mandate to govern brings to the table its membership to crucial positions so that they can implement the party’s manifesto.

Because there is no way a political party can succeed in government without the people who understand its manifesto when it comes to devising relevant policies that can ensure the manifesto becomes something from the paper form to reality.

There is absolutely no way a leader can go to war without the required soldiers who understand and believe in the leader’s vision, because if that is not the case, the soldiers will fail to comprehend what is expected of them and what their duty is.

So, what the DA is suggesting about the scrapping of cadre deployment is impractical and puts whatever government at failure’s door without a fighting chance.

Cadre deployment is not the real issue here, but the quality of people being deployed. If cadre deployment only deployed qualified, skilled and fit-for-purpose people, will that be a problem? The answer is definitely a solid no.

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Hence, the elephant in the room that must be addressed is how can this cadre deployment be done by choosing or appointing the best of the best?

However, to expect the ANC to deploy DA members in crucial positions is far-fetched and unrealistic, because there is nothing good that will come out of that except political sabotage.

Because how can the ANC expect to implement broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) with DA members at the helm? And second to this, if the Economic Freedom Fighters, for example governs, how is it possible for it to end up implementing the expropriation of land without compensation while DA members occupy the arms of implementation?

Point is, whatever political party is in charge, it is its prerogative to deploy its foot soldiers to important positions of government and state-owned enterprises.

And besides, everyone who gets deployed wherever, they are first South Africans before they are members of any political party. That should never be forgotten.

• Mthembu is an independent commentator