SPOT THE PROBLEM
Introduction
Attached to this post (below) are two pictures – PICTURE 1 and PICTURE 2.
Open picture one first, and see if you can spot the problem.
If you can’t, open picture two (a wider shot of picture one) which should help you solve the riddle.
Once you’ve done that, read on.
The problem
The problem – of state (public) institutions and representatives promoting party political agendas – is not insignificant in South Africa.
It varies from the subtle (say arts and culture spokesperson Sandile Memela’s abuse of his position by promoting the ANC in his “personal capacity”) through to the blatantly obvious (the government’s use of ANC colours and slogans in its advertising and the conflating of ANC party political documents – such as the Freedom Charter – with the government’s mandate and programme of action).
The regulations on this matter are very explicit. The government’s explanatory manual on the code of conduct for the public service, puts it like this:
“An employee [of the public service] does not abuse his or her position in the public service to promote or prejudice the interest of any political party or interest group.
“Since the public service serves the entire community, which consists of various interest groups, political parties and people with different beliefs, etc., it follows that public service employees must not be involved in any matters which could be seen as favouring one group over another.
“As far as the public service is concerned, all its clients must be served equally in accordance with the policies of the government of the day. An employee must therefore clearly understand the difference between his or her responsibilities towards the government of the day and becoming directly involved in party political issues.”
(Civil servants are bound by the Public Service Commission’s code of conduct for public servants which, among other things, stipulates that a state employee must “serve the public in an unbiased and impartial manner” and must “not abuse his or her position in the Public Service to promote or prejudice the interest of any political party or interest group.”)
Conclusion
Obviously, driving round with a ‘Vote ANC’ sticker on a police car is a violation of that code. But the incident itself is symptomatic of a broader problem.
The message public servants constantly get from the government is that the ANC and the state are one and the same. (As Tony Leon put it: “…the ANC views itself as the “vanguard” of the African majority, in much the same way as the Communist Party in Lenin’s Soviet Union regarded itself as the “vanguard of the working class”. The ANC believes it organically embodies the political, social and economic aspirations of the African majority, and that it is therefore the “natural” government of our country.”)
The DA will take this particular incident forward with the minister of safety and security, but until the ANC begins to project itself as a political party and not some sort of omnipotent revolutionary movement the problem won’t go away.
This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author – www.insidepolitics.org.za - the views expressed in the article are not necessarily shared by the Democratic Alliance
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Attached Documents
PICTURE1.jpeg
PICTURE2.jpeg
| Posted on 19/6/2007
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