2005-11-04,+Corruption+worries+Nzimande,+Monare,+Star

SACP in call to curb power of presidential patronage = Corruption worries Nzimande =

The Star, Johannesburg, November 3, 2005

By Moshoeshoe Monare

Checks and balances are needed on the power of the president to elect premiers, executive mayors and his own cabinet because the power of patronage breeds corruption.

And the same safeguards are necessary for premiers and executive members in terms of the appointment of their own executive.

This is the belief of SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande.

Writing in the SACP's online newsletter, Nzimande did not single out the president or any premier or executive mayor by name, but instead wrote in general terms about the current prerogative to appoint individuals.

"The creeping patronage in our movement precisely derives from inadequate democratic checks and balances on this power. This is a source of corruption as it begins to create patrons and beneficiaries that tend to override commitment to the service to the people and the organisation."

Even worse, Nzimande wrote, it created "other members' members" whose primary loyalty was less to the organisation than to the "patron".

The ANC president was given the right by the party's national executive committee in 1998 to appoint premiers and executive mayors. And the constitution gives the president and premiers the prerogative to appoint their own cabinet, while the Municipal Structures Act provides that executive mayors must appoint their executive council.

Nzimande said these rights had to be accounted for. "We should seek to implement the guidelines emanating from the ANC (national general council) that the powers of prerogative to appoint or dismiss given to various roles in the state should be heavily balanced by effective democratic consultation with the organisations and not be treated as an absolute 'state-based' right."

Mbeki's aides had used the president's constitutional prerogative to hire and fire his cabinet to defend him against Jacob Zuma supporters, claimed Nzimande, whose party supports the former deputy president. mmon@star.co.za

From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2978297