The DA has dismissed as “frivolous” the ANC’s decision to approach the Constitutional Court to appeal against a lower-court ruling on its controversial cadre deployment policy, which is said to be one of the foundations of corruption and inefficiency in the government and state-owned enterprises.
This comes after the Supreme Court of Appeal last week dismissed ANC attempts to appeal against two rulings by the high court in Johannesburg forcing the ANC to hand over records of its cadre deployment committee since January 1 2013, when President Cyril Ramaphosa became chair.
“On Friday, the DA received a letter from the ANC’s attorneys indicating that the party will appeal [in] this case to the Constitutional Court,” DA public service & administration Leon Schreiber said on Sunday.
“Like all of the ANC’s previous attempts, this final court bid is doomed to fail. There simply exists no legal grounds for the ANC to keep its cadre deployment records secret, because the entire reason that cadre deployment exists is to enable the ANC to interfere in appointments to positions in the public sector.”
The DA has long advocated the abolishment of the policy, which it says is at the centre of the weakening of state institutions through the deployment of cadres who often lack the skills and experience to run government agencies, enterprises and departments.
The DA maintains that through the policy the ANC illegally interferes in the appointment processes to ensure its cadres are appointed on the basis of their loyalty to the governing party, rather than merit and skill.
Merit-based appointments
The policy, which the DA wants replaced with merit-based appointments throughout the public sector, has been used by the ANC to help fast-track transformation and to better implement its policies in government. However, it has been blamed for a series of service delivery failures.
In the final part of the state capture commission report released in June 2022, commission chair and chief justice Raymond Zondo declared the policy unconstitutional and illegal.
“We are confident that the Constitutional Court will dismiss this frivolous waste of court resources by the ANC with the contempt it deserves. Once the court has done so, the ANC will have nowhere left to hide and it will be forced to immediately hand over meeting minutes, WhatsApp conversations, email threads, CVs and all other cadre deployment documents to the DA,” said Schreiber.
The DA is also awaiting a ruling in its second court application, “where we have asked the Pretoria high court to declare ANC cadre deployment unconstitutional and unlawful. The combined effect of these two court cases will be to both pierce the veil of secrecy that shrouds cadre deployment, and to smash the foundations upon which it is built.”
ANC head of legal Billy Malatsi told Business Day: “We are going to appeal at the Constitutional Court because we believe the apex court will come to a different conclusion. Look, the DA is our competitor and they want access to our cadre deployment records which involves our strategy on cadre deployment.”
Malatsi said the DA had its own version of cadre deployment. “They do cadre deployment themselves. John Steenhuisen and other DA MPs are DA cadres, they may not call it cadre deployment but they are doing the exact same thing [as the ANC].”
Last week finance minister Enoch Godongwana told an event organised by News24 that the National Treasury, which is responsible for managing the public purse, should remain insulated from the ANC’s practice of cadre deployment in order for it to function effectively.
Godongwana, who also serves as member of the national executive committee of the ANC, its highest decision-making body between conferences, said the party’s cadre deployment practice would “kill the institution [National Treasury]”.
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