DA wins ground-breaking court battle to expose ANC cadre corruption records

2 February 2023

In a ground-breaking judgment handed down today by the Johannesburg High Court, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has won our long-running battle to expose complete records of the African National Congress’ (ANC) national cadre deployment committee’s role in the corruption, capture and collapse of South Africa’s public sector.

In its ruling, the court 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 court ordered the ANC to pay the DA’s costs in the case and to surrender, within 5 days, all of these documents dating back to 1 January 2013, when President Cyril Ramaphosa became the chairman of the cadre deployment committee.

Ramaphosa chaired this 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 judgment 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. The corollary of this is that there are indeed instances where the appointments are so made.” It also affirmed the importance of parliamentary oversight, holding that the DA’s efforts to end cadre deployment in Parliament “necessitates the disclosure of facts in relation to the appointment of individuals.” In sum, the court ruled that the DA “has set out, and prima facie established, the right which is sufficient proof for an applicant to result in his entitlement to access the record.”

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.

Thanks to the DA’s relentless fight against cadre deployment corruption, South Africans will for the very first time be able to see not only Ramaphosa’s personal complicity in state capture as chairman of the committee, but they will also get to see the full truth of how the appointment of ANC cadres on the basis of loyalty to the party rather than on merit is the true cause of our country’s rapidly failing state.

Once these records are made public, the DA calls on all sectors of society to rally behind our End Cadre Deployment Bill that is currently serving before Parliament, so that we may finally bring an end to this scourge and begin the arduous but urgent journey of building a professional, skilled and merit-based public sector.

The DA 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.

Statement issued by Dr Leon Schreiber MP, DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 2 February 2023