Politics–Administration Interface: The Case of the City of Cape Town

Abstract

This article is an analysis of a controversial policy decision on the part of the newly elected Democratic Alliance local administration in Cape Town, South Africa, to fire senior officials of the previous African National Congress administration and to introduce an interim policy for senior managers that stated that such positions should be filled by people who are ‘politically suitable and acceptable’ to the ruling party. The author of this article was part of a team that reviewed this policy. This article is an account of this process. The author developed, on the basis of comparative experience, a heuristic model that could serve as the basis for gauging the extent of politicians’ involvement in the appointment of staff. A continuum illustrating the different approaches to council appointment of staff was generated. Five different approaches were identified, namely neutral, minimalist appointment of senior staff, appointment of top and middle-level staff, large-scale appointment in all ranks and fusion of party/state. The report concluded that the most appropriate of these models is the minimalist appointment model whereby councillors should have the right to appoint certain selected senior staff.