By: Natasha Archary
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has won a ground-breaking court battle to have access to the ANC’s cadre deployment documents.
In judgement handed down by the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday, 02 February, the ANC will now be required to make public all minutes, WhatsApp conversations, email threads, CVs and other records relating to cadre deployment.
This after the DA had been struggling to expose the ANC’s employment structure, favouring party members for highly ranked positions regardless of educational qualifications or experience.
The High Court has ordered the ANC to pay the DA’s costs in the case and to surrender within 5-days all documents relating to cadre deployment dating back to 01 January 2013.
It was then that current President Cyril Ramaphosa was chairman of the ANC’s cadre deploymen committee.
“Ramaphosa chaired his committee all throughout the years of Jacob Zuma’s presidency, during which time the committee exercised undue influence to ensure the appointment of the corrupt cadres who captured and collapsed our state.
The judgement dealt a fatal blow to the ANC’s claim that there are instances where the wishes of the Deployment Committee are not taken into account.”
For the DA, the judgement is important, holding firm the opposition party’s efforts to end cadre deployment in Parliament.
“Today’s ruling is a historic victory by the DA for transparency and the rule of law in South Africa. It creates new jurisprudence confirming that political parties are not elevated above the Constitution, and makes it clear that politicians who corruptly interfere in affairs of state cannot hide behind a veil of secrecy.
For nearly three decades, the ANC’s cadre deployment committee secretly interfered in appointments across the state, directly causing the collapsing service delivery and load shedding crisis we all experience on a daily basis.
That secrecy ends now, thanks to the DA’s relentless fight for the public’s right to know the truth about cadre deployment.”
The DA says the party will not rest until cadre deployment corruption, along with the party who wrought this evil on our country, is consigned to the dustbin of history.
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