The ANC has been ordered by the Constitutional Court to hand over records of the cadre deployment committee. Picture: Phill Magakoe/Independent Newspapers
The ANC has reached the end of the road in its attempt to withhold the records of its cadre deployment committee from the DA.
It has five working days to submit the minutes of meetings, CVs, email threads, WhatsApp discussions and all other documents of the cadre deployment committee.
This follows a Constitutional Court decision on Monday, dismissing with costs an appeal by the ANC. The apex court ruled that it was not in the interests of justice for leave to appeal to be granted.
The party had approached the Constitutional Court after the Supreme Court of Appeal found last September that the ANC could not appeal against an earlier high court loss on the matter.
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, previously ordered the ANC to hand over the records of the national cadre deployment committee for its work from January 1, 2013, to January 1, 2021. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court said it considered the application for condonation and the application to appeal and concluded the application should be dismissed because it was not in the interest of justice for leave to appeal to be granted.
“The delay in bringing the application for leave to appeal is minimal. The explanation for the delay is adequate and there is no prejudice to the respondent.
“Consequently, condonation is granted but leave to appeal must be refused as it is not in the interest of justice to hear the matter,” the Concourt found.
DA MP Leon Schreiber, who has been behind the legal challenge, said the ANC had run out of road and must now expose the secrets it was so desperate to hide.
“Today marks one of the great victories in South African legal and democratic history. This ruling will first ensure transparency, by forcing the ANC to reveal exactly how Ramaphosa’s cadre deployment committee laid the foundation for state capture by interfering in public appointment processes.
“It also sets a powerful new precedent that empowers all South Africans to use the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to force the ANC to reveal how it interferes in appointments,” Schreiber said.
He also said the DA encouraged any South African who has been overlooked for a public sector job to use this precedent to force the ANC to reveal how it used cadre deployment to block skilled applicants from being appointed in order to favour its chosen cadres.
“The records are set to reveal, once and for all, that President Cyril Ramaphosa was personally involved in the state capture project in his capacity as cadre deployment chairperson.
“The State Capture Commission has already confirmed the ANC deployment committee was a key cog in the machine that corrupted and collapsed the public sector, because it was this committee that illegally intervened to ensure the appointment of the people who captured the state,” Schreiber added.
ANC national spokesperson Hlengiwe Bhengu-Motsiri said the party noted the judgment on cadre deployment, which was a practice not exclusive to the ANC both in South Africa and abroad “The ANC will study the judgment to ensure that it is adhered to accordingly,” Bhengu-Motsiri said.
Schreiber said the DA keenly awaited the outcome of a separate application in the Gauteng High Court to declare cadre deployment unconstitutional and unlawful.
“We believe the Constitutional Court’s ruling is important in that context, because it confirms that the actions of the ANC cadre deployment committee directly affects the public.
“The DA’s victory in the ruling handed down today is based on the premise – now vindicated by the highest court in the land – that the deployment committee does not merely make “recommendations,” but actively influences public sector appointments in an unlawful manner.”
Cape Times
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