Johannesburg – The African National Congress (ANC) has been ordered by the Constitutional Court to make public its controversial cadre deployment records dating back to 2013.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), which won the matter in the Constitutional Court, on Monday said the ANC had five days to comply with the order.
“This morning, the Constitutional Court handed down judgment in favour of the DA’s case to compel the ANC to make public its complete cadre deployment records dating back to 1 January 2013, when President Cyril Ramaphosa became chairman of the cadre deployment committee,” said Dr. Leon Schreiber, MP and DA Shadow Minister of Public Service and Administration.
“In terms of the judgment, the ANC now has five working days to hand over to the DA all meeting minutes, CVs, email threads, Whatsapp discussions and other relevant documents relating to the cadre deployment committee, dating back more than a decade.
“The ANC has run out of road and must now expose the secrets it was so desperate to hide.”
Dr. Schreiber said the ruling comes after the ANC appealed to the Constitutional Court in “a last-ditch attempt to hide its dirty cadre secrets from the people of South Africa”.
The Constitutional Court ruling followed earlier judgments handed down by the Gauteng High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, which both confirmed that the DA was right that the people of South Africa have the right to know how the ANC’s cadre deployment committee interferes in appointments to the public sector.
“Today marks one of the great victories in South African legal and democratic history,” said Dr. Schreiber.
“This ruling will firstly 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.”
The DA said it encourages any South African who has been overlooked for a public sector job to use this precedent to “force the ANC to reveal how it uses cadre deployment to block skilled applicants from being appointed in order to favour its chosen cadres.”
Dr. Schreiber said cadre deployment was not a victimless crime, adding that it lies at the heart of state capture and corruption.
“It is also the root cause of the collapse in state capacity because it enables the ANC to appoint people in the public sector on the basis of loyalty to the party, rather than on the basis of merit and skill,” said Dr. Schreiber.
“This destroys the capacity of the state to deliver services, rendering cadre deployment as a key cause of crises like load-shedding, water-shedding, infrastructure collapse, and economic decline.”
Meanwhile, the DA said it keenly awaits the outcome of a separate application in the Gauteng High Court to declare cadre deployment unconstitutional and unlawful.
