Deputy Leon Schreiber. Image: Supplied
- The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered the ANC to hand over its cadre deployment records from 2013 to the DA within five court days.
- The court held that “parliamentary oversight is best done with full knowledge of all the factors involved in the appointment of officials.”
- The DA hailed it as a victory for transparency and the rule of law.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s words to the Zondo Commission that it is inappropriate for the ANC deployment committee’s activities to take place in dark corners could come back to haunt him after the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered the ANC to hand over its records of frame display.
On Thursday, Judge Willem Wepener ordered the ANC to hand over the records within five legal days to federal district deputy Leon Schreiber.
In a post-trial statement, Schreiber said: “South Africans will for the first time be able to see not only Ramaphosa’s personal complicity in state capture as committee chair, but will also be able to see the full truth of how the appointment of cadres of the ANC on the basis of party loyalty rather than merit is the real cause of the rapidly deteriorating state of our country.”
In 2021, he filed a request under the Promotion of Access to Information Law (PAIA) for the ANC to hand over the full records of the cadre deployment committee since January 1, 2013 when Ramaphosa became its president. .
This information would include meeting minutes, WhatsApp conversations, email threads, CV, and all other records from your committee.
READ | DA to ask court to compel ANC to hand over cadre deployment records
The ANC refused and Schreiber filed the court request.
Wepener found the ANC’s decision illegal and invalid and overturned it. He also ordered the party to pay the costs of the prosecution.
For his application to be successful, Schreiber had to convince the court that he needed the information to protect certain rights.
He advanced three of those rights.
The first is that the DA wants to enact cadre deployment legislation and therefore needed the information to understand what cadre deployment entails and what its impact might be.
Second, as a deputy, Schreiber has a duty to monitor appointments to state bodies.
And third, that non-appointees in the public service could use the information to challenge illegal and irregular appointments.
Wepener was not convinced on the third reason, but agreed with Schreiber on the first two.
Breaking: The DA has won our court case against the ANC’s attempt to keep cadre records secret. The ANC’s refusal of my PAIA application to expose the cadre committee is illegal and invalid. The ANC has 5 days to deliver all the minutes of the cadres, emails, Whatsapp, CV to the DA. pic.twitter.com/Ln44im5l7B
– Leon Schreiber (@Leon_Schreib) February 2, 2023
“In my view, parliamentary oversight works best with full knowledge of all the factors involved in appointing officials,” Wepener’s ruling reads.
In a supplemental affidavit, which the ANC did not challenge as defendants, Schreiber presented to the court some of the evidence regarding the deployment of cadres to the Zondo Commission.
Wepener referred to Ramaphosa’s testimony, in which he “stated that it is inappropriate for the deployment committee’s activities to take place in dark corners and should instead be conducted in an open and transparent manner.”
“The deployment committee documents, which were disclosed in the Zondo Commission, demonstrate not only that the deployment committee, among other things, engages in ‘judicial appointments,’ but recommends names of individuals as judges or candidates for the court. “, the sentence reads.
Wepener also referred to ANC Chairman Gwede Mantashe’s testimony before the commission, in which he said: “Comrades, once deployed, are expected to work on behalf of the [ANC] movement in public and parastatal service”.
On this, Wepener commented: “In my opinion, such a display may detract from the objectivity of the person so employed who had to ‘work’ on behalf of the ANC.”
READ | Deployment of cadres ‘not government policy’, Ramaphosa’s lawyer argues against DA in court challenge
He also referred to former Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan’s statement before the Commission about the “significant pressure” she faced to make certain appointments.
Wepener also commented that the ANC’s lawyer admitted that there were cases where the wishes of the deployment committee were not considered.
“The corollary of this is that, in fact, there are cases where appointments are made like this,” he said.
In his statement, Schreiber described the ruling as a historic victory for transparency and the rule of law in South Africa.
“For almost three decades, the ANC’s cadre deployment committee secretly interfered in appointments across the state, directly leading to the collapse of service delivery and the burden reduction crisis we all experience on a daily basis.
“That secrecy ends now, thanks to the district attorney’s relentless fight for the public’s right to know the truth about the cadre deployment,” he said.
Meanwhile, the DA is also awaiting the outcome of a separate application, in which it has asked the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to declare the ANC’s cadre deployment policy illegal and unconstitutional.
