Limit+Mbeki+hire-fire+powers+–+ANC,+Sthembiso+Msomi,+City+Press

City Press, Johannesburg, 24/03/2007 21:17 - (SA)
=Limit Mbeki’s powers to hire and fire – ANC=


 * S’thembiso Msomi**

President Thabo Mbeki’s powers to appoint and dismiss cabinet members may soon be reduced if a proposal by the ANC is accepted at its national policy conference in June.

In one of the discussion documents released this week, the ruling party proposes that the prerogative of the president, premiers and mayors to hire and fire ministers, executive councils and mayoral committees should be limited.

The document, A Strategic Agenda for Organisational Renewal, says that this prerogative should only be exercised “after consultation with” ANC structures.

The issue came under heavy criticism in ANC structures after Mbeki fired deputy president Jacob Zuma following the Schabir Shaik corruption judgment in 2005.

Mbeki critics questioned why the president was allowed to take such a step without consulting with the broader ANC structures.

The expulsion also resulted in ANC leaders suggesting that the deputy president of the country should be elected directly by Parliament, in the same manner as the president is voted for.

This, they say, would mean that a deputy president is “not just another ordinary cabinet minister” who could be removed by the president at will.

The proposals are now going to be discussed by ANC structures before they are debated and decided upon at the policy conference.

The document further proposes the tightening of the party’s guiding document on leadership, which is called Through The Eye Of The Needle.

“This will ensure that candidates are scrupulously scrutinised. . . and their strengths and weaknesses discussed openly in the meetings of the organisation,” reads the document.

It also calls for “political education” of members to ensure that they “understand the basis on which leadership is elected into structures of the movement”.

The document further proposes that branches should “carefully scrutinise and deliberate on the calibre of delegates they elect and send” to the national conference.

The conference, which is held to elect a new national executive committee, is scheduled for December. Mbeki and Zuma are expected to run against each other for the presidency.

Tensions are already running high within the ranks of the ANC between those who want Mbeki to remain president and those who want Zuma to take over from him.

With intense lobbying having already begun, albeit unofficially, the discussion document says: “There is a need to stamp out destructive practices such as smear campaigns and character assassinations of those with whom one disagrees.

“Disciplinary proceedings should be instituted against ANC members who are found to have been involved in smear campaigns and factional activities that undermine the formal processes wherein members are free to air their views and debate leadership issues frankly.”


 * From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/News/0,,186-187_2088593,00.html**

455 words