Court orders ANC to provide deployment records
The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) yesterday ordered the ANC to hand over its cadre deployment records since 2013 to the DA within five court days.
The official opposition last month submitted a court application to have the policy declared unlawful and unconstitutional.
The ANC opposed the application, arguing that it is a futile mission and that the official opposition party has not made out a case for the relief it seeks. The policy, which the DA wants declared unconstitutional and replaced with merit-based appointments throughout the public sector, has been used by the ruling party to help fast-track transformation and to better implement its policies.
However, it has been blamed for service delivery failures, with the ANC blamed for appointing cadres to critical roles in departments, agencies and enterprises who often lack the requisite skills, competence or training and experience to run them.
The court held ‘parliamentary oversight is best served with full knowledge of all the factors that go into the appointment of officials’.
The ANC must also pay the DA's costs in the litigation. The DA hailed it as a victory for transparency and the rule of law.
The ANC’s head of legal Krish Naidoo said: ‘We have instructed our attorneys to apply for leave to appeal the judgment. That will be attended to first thing tomorrow (Friday).’
DA Public Service & Administration Shadow Minister Leon Schreiber lodged an application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act in 2021 for the ANC to hand over its cadre deployment committee records dating back to 1 January 2013 when President Cyril Ramaphosa became its chair.
Business Day reports that Judge Willem Wepener found that the ANC’s refusal to make public minutes, WhatsApp conversations, email threads, CVs and all other records of its cadre deployment committee was ‘unlawful and invalid’.
‘The decision of the ANC to refuse Schreiber’s request for access to information, dated 22 February 2021, is declared unlawful and invalid and is set aside,’ the judgment read.
In the final part of the state capture report released in June 2022, commission chair and Chief Justice Raymond Zondo found the policy to be unconstitutional and illegal.
This is after it came under much criticism at the commission, with evidence leaders suggesting it is one of the foundations of corruption and inefficiency in the government and state-owned enterprises.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
