A dispute has broken out in South Africa over plans by the ruling African National Congress to deploy its members in the main centres of power. This is intended to buttress and prolong its political hegemony, re-enforced by its sweeping victory in the June 2nd general election.
The plan has been sharply criticised by Mr Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Party, as a "programme to destroy the proper distinction between party and state". "It strikes at the very heart of our democracy," he said.
Mr Leon sees the plan - described as a "plot" in the British Sunday Times - as an attempt to locate power increasingly in the hands of the ANC's national leadership rather than parliament.
In a phrase echoing President Thabo Mbeki's recent criticism of the Democratic Party as "homegrown Thatcherism", Mr Leon stated: "Increasingly the centre of power in South Africa is a homegrown version of the Soviet Union's politburo. The South African politburo, with a few democratic flourishes and without recourse to Stalinist terror, consists of the Office of the ANC secretary general, the institution of its national working committee and the person of Thabo Mbeki."
Comparing the ANC and its cadres to the Afrikaner Broederbond (League of Brothers), which once exercised immense power in South Africa, Mr Leon said of the ANC plan: "It will create two classes of citizens, one for the ANC elite and one for South Africans who are not members of the ANC".
Details of the plan were published in the ANC journal Umrabulo as concern grows over the posting of ANC politicians to pivotal positions. Former ANC luminaries now serve as the governor of the Reserve Bank, the National Director of Prosecutions, the chairman of the Demarcation Board - which is determining municipal boundaries for next year's local government elections - and the head of Denel, the state-controlled armaments company.
An ANC spokesman, Mr Smuts Ngonyama, has dismissed Mr Leon's criticisms as unfounded. He describes them as "racist" and "nonsensical".
Asserting that the purpose of deploying ANC members is to accelerate the "transformation" of post-apartheid South Africa, Mr Ngonyama said: "The DP is hell-bent on making sure that power [remains] in the hands of the white minority, socially, politically and economically. That is why it is against affirmative action." The controversy has ricocheted across the political terrain and generated considerable confusion, but several points can be made with a fair degree of confidence.
It is not correct to label the plan a "plot" or a "conspiracy". It is published in an ANC journal which is available to a growing number of South Africans on the website. The purpose of the journal is to provoke discussion of ANC policy documents.
The deployment of ANC members to key centres of power must be seen in the context of ANC fears that many pro-apartheid functionaries remain in critical positions within the civil service.
As one former ANC provincial premier has put it: "We were in office but not in power." The words of former President Nelson Mandela are equally apposite: "Except for the highest echelons, there was no planned deployment of cadre. We were disorganised and behaved in a manner that could have endangered the revolution."
That said, the ANC should not be surprised if opposition parties react vigorously when it openly states that its aim is to deploy its officials in every key position.