DA leader Helen Zille says that as the president of the country Jacob Zuma is more likely than former president Thabo Mbeki to abuse the office power and enrich himself and his clique.

"Cadre deployment is one of the key tools of abuse. Unless we get rid of it now, South Africa will become a failed state, like Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, where corrupt leaders have made poor people poorer," Zille told a public meeting in East London.

She said the African National Congress formally adopted a cadre deployment policy in 1997, dispatching party loyalists to do its bidding in the public service, local government administration and independent state institutions.

This had entrenched the party's power and created a closed circle of party cronies who reaped the spoils of office.

"Cadre deployment has also given the ANC's leadership cabal unsurpassed control over those institutions ? such as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) ? which the constitution designed and intended to limit the ruling party's power.

"It is the reason why the contest between rival factions in the ANC became so fierce in the run-up to Polokwane, and why state institutions such as the NPA became embroiled in an internal party conflict."

Zille said that once factionalism became rife within the ruling party, it was inevitable that cadres would use the institutions they led to fight battles on behalf of their political masters and persecute their political opponents.

"The DA recognised as far as back as 1997 that the practice would lead to a blurring of party and state. We warned that it would inevitably result in the cronyism and corruption that is the hallmark of the failed state," she said.

"It should sound alarm bells for the ANC that the time has arrived to abandon cadre deployment once and for all, and it should prompt Jacob Zuma to set the ball in motion.

"But he will not do this, because he needs the policy of cadre deployment for his own political survival.

"He needs to deploy members of his clique to institutions of state to protect himself."

Zille accused Zuma, who is president of the ANC, of doing "everything to avoid his day in court in order to gain the power of the presidency".

She referred to accusations that Zuma wanted his former attorney Muzi Wilfred Mkhize appointed as the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to make the case against him "go away".

"Why would Zuma want an independent person as the NDPP when he (Mkhize) is facing allegations of 783 counts of bribery over 10 years involving R4.2-million?" she asked.

"It is time to say no to the closed circle of corrupt ANC cronies, no to cadre deployment, and yes to the DA's vision of an open, opportunity society.

"In the open, opportunity society it is the best person for the job who is appointed, not the best person for the party. We will stop cadre deployment once and for all."

Blaming cadre deployment for the split in the ANC, Zille said this was to the benefit of not just the DA, but democracy, as it meant the ANC was no longer guaranteed majorities in every province.