Terrified ANC appeals contempt of court ruling against Mbalula in last ditch attempt to hide Ramaphosa’s dirty cadre secrets
26 April 2024
The DA has received notice from the ANC that it has applied for leave to appeal a ruling handed down on 3 April 2024 by the Johannesburg High Court, which found the ANC and its secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, guilty of civil contempt of court for unlawfully withholding records of its national cadre deployment committee in violation of an earlier order, which was upheld by the Constitutional Court, that all such records must be handed over to the DA. The ANC had until 24 April 2024 to comply or to file yet another frivolous application to appeal.
With this latest doomed attempt to appeal, the ANC continues its desperate Stalingrad tactics of seeking to delay justice in this matter. No fewer than four different courts have now ruled against the ANC’s attempts to hide its dirty cadre deployment secrets from the people of South Africa.
In the first instance, the Johannesburg High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court all ruled that the ANC must make public all cadre records dating back to 1 January 2013, when Cyril Ramaphosa became chairman of the cadre deployment committee. When the ANC failed to do so – including by withholding all records held by Ramaphosa in his personal Whatsapps and emails – the High Court on 3 April again agreed with the DA that this amounted to “wilful” and “male fide” contempt of court.
In its ruling, the court specifically condemned the ANC’s contemptuous failure to disclose communications and records held by Cyril Ramaphosa. The court noted that “in particular, [the ANC] was obliged to disclose communication relating to the committee’s work by, and involving, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was the chairperson of the committee between 2013 and 2018.”