Cock-a-hoop as they are, some of President Thabo Mbeki’s enemies are threatening to fire or ‘recall’ him if he does not obey orders from the new National Executive Committee (NEC) in Luthuli House. Short of deservedly losing the vote of no-confidence in Parliament threatened by the Independent Democrats, Mbeki may not be so easy to get rid of, however. The president is not a member of Parliament (MP), so he has no seat to lose even if the African National Congress (ANC) were to take the drastic step of expelling him from the party. Mbeki could simply refuse to be ‘recalled’.

And so he should. There are plenty of reasons why Mbeki should quit, but obeying a party ‘recall’ or ‘redeployment’ demand is not one of them. Mbeki has himself undermined democracy at provincial and local level by ‘deploying’ his own supporters to supposedly elected positions. But he now has a chance to take a stand against this fundamentally anti-democratic practice even if his motive is simply survival for the rest of his presidential term.

One of the big gripes against Mbeki was the way he played the deployment game. The NEC will now stop him doing that. Their motive is not that it is anti-democratic, but simply that they want to play the game themselves. Previously, Mbeki had sole authority to appoint provincial premiers (and executive mayors). Now the 88-member NEC will do it, choosing from among three nominees of ANC provincial executives. Provincial legislatures and provincial voters will just have to accept the leaders chosen for them.

The deployment system is not new. But it is obviously going to be strengthened as a means of ensuring the supremacy of the party as the sole centre of power. As ANC Today noted last month, ‘The ANC is the strategic political centre that directs and guides its deployees in various centres’. Perhaps ANC members of Parliament and provincial legislatures will be content at thus being downgraded from elected representatives to mere ‘deployees’ of the NEC. But there is more at stake than the status of ANC MPs. The treasurer-general of the ANC, Mathews Phosa, says, ‘The NEC in effect becomes the representative of the majority of the voters between elections…Its task, therefore, is to…instruct the executive and legislative organs of government on issues of policy’.

So Parliament, which was becoming a bit more assertive against the executive, is expected to revert to a rubber stamp. But 28% of MPs represent other parties. They will not be able even to witness, much less participate in, the political decision-making process in the NEC that intends now to rule the country as a Soviet-style politburo. Press and public will also be excluded.

Mbeki was criticised for treating the leader of the Democratic Alliance, Tony Leon, with disdain. The implication of Phosa’s remark is that all other parties, and those who voted for them, will now get the same treatment, formalised and institutionalised.

There is one chink of light in this gloomy scenario in which public participation, representative government, and multi-party democracy are all at risk. That is Phosa’s statement in December last year that ‘an empowered Parliament should be vigilant so that it is not perceived to be a toothless extension of an all-powerful executive.’ Parliament, he added, should play ‘a strict and hands-on oversight role of the executive and must fearlessly question the actions, motives, and programmes of those who report to it.’

Taken at face value, this is music to the ears. But questions arise. Is Parliament’s new-found vigilance merely an expedient to keep Mbeki in line? Or will Parliament be expected to enter upon a new period of vigilance irrespective of whoever heads the government after Mbeki? Nor is it clear on whose behalf vigilance is to be exercised. If Parliament is merely the place where ANC members are deployed to make sure the executive does the party’s bidding, then Parliament will simply exchange one toothless role for another. But if the intention is to strengthen Parliament in its own right vis-à-vis the executive, that is long overdue.

There are two ways to put the issue beyond doubt. The first is to require the Speaker to given up her chairmanship of the ANC and its parliamentary political committee. The second is to introduce a constituency-based electoral system.