Cape Town, 20 January 2010: The Congress of the People feels vindicated by the ruling party's public acknowledgement that cadre deployment is unfeasible, and their intentions to abandon thecadre deployment policy which has had adverse impact on service delivery, in particular local government.COPE notes and welcomes the admission by the ANC's spokesperson Jackson Mthembu in an interview on SABC's SAFM with Ike Phaahla yesterday, consistent with the January 8 statement by President Zuma’s assertions that the party's cadre deployment policy has failed the citizens of this country in various municipalities.

COPE firmly believes in loyalty but not at the expense of the vulnerable citizens, many of whom still do not have access to basic human needs such as water and sanitation 15 years on into the new  dispensation.

He also said, “now that the ruling party has seen the light, COPE will be watching with hawk eyes to ensure that they see through their latest position on cadre deployment policy”.

“It is appalling that as a country, South Africa is sitting with high numbers of unemployed graduates while the country is still in dire need of people with critical and scarce skills. All the ANC has done in the past in response to this problem is to issue patronage and deploy its loyal cadres to strategic positions, despite the obvious absence of the required skills to do the job”, Nhanha said further.

COPE will be conducting its own spot skills audit of municipal managers of the 283 municipalities to verify the seriousness of the ruling party's intentions to root out rampant corruption and increase service delivery in local government. COPE members on the ground and in municipalities will be a good source for cause to continuously bring the inept municipal managers to the attention of the President and the minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

COPE believes that what needs to be done to speedy up service delivery
in local government is to:

●       Professionalise the civil service by conducting an honest skills
audit to be overseen by the Auditor General’s Office and then hire and
place competent and qualified people in all positions; and
●       Stop with immediate effect the redeployment of civil servants to
other state departments and institutions who are found guilty with of
corruption.

End...

Issued by the COPE MP and Spokesperson for Public Enterprises: Mlindi Nhanha, MP to be contacted on 084 369 4883
For media inquiries contact: Phillip Dexter on 082 453 4088

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