Big business must come clean on deployed ANC cadres

25 August 2022

Yesterday, the Democratic Alliance published the replying affidavit from President Cyril Ramaphosa in his response to our court challenge over the constitutionality of the ANC’s Cadre Deployment Policy.

In doing so, President Ramaphosa revealed in point 65.4 of his replying affidavit that the policy extends beyond state institutions and has been used to deploy ANC cadres into the private sector.

This is a deeply worrying development of the policy which raises a lot of questions, including:

Which businesses have accepted ANC deployed cadres to their boards or positions of management?

Why would businesses in the private sector subject themselves to a political party policy such as cadre deployment?

What mechanism existed between the recommendations of the cadre deployment committee, or recommendations of ANC officials, to enforce the deployment of ANC cadres to businesses?

Were the boards of companies aware of this practice?

Has this information ever been made known to shareholders, and if not, why not?

The DA will therefore write to the Chief Executive Officers of the Top 40 JSE listed companies with a series of questions about their knowledge of ANC cadre deployment onto their boards or management structures. Should answers not be forthcoming, we will explore the legal route provided by the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).

There has long been a view that the ANC and big business co-exist in close proximity to one another to ensure that government policies and laws remain favourable to them, to the detriment of small businesses and the rest of society. There is no clearer example of this than Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) which is the ultimate “insider/outsider” stitch-up between big business and the politically connected.

Cadre deployment has been one of the most devastating ANC policies in South Africa since 1994. It laid the foundation for State Capture. But the revelation that this policy has been embraced by big business in an attempt to buy favour with the ANC makes it clear that it was not only the state that was captured. This was Country Capture, and the public and shareholders have a right to know about it.

Issued by Dean McPherson, DA Shadow Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, 25 August 2022