DA secures historic victory for South Africans against ANC cadre deployment - now it’s time to destroy this evil system

11 August 2021

The DA’s relentless campaign against the evil ANC policy of cadre deployment has today been completely vindicated by the testimony delivered in front of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry. In the process, the DA has secured a historic victory for all South Africans who yearn to live in a country with a capable and professional government. We must now follow through by destroying the system of cadre deployment once and for all.

At the beginning of the year, the DA had written to the Zondo Commission requesting that the Commission subpoena the ANC to provide records and minutes of all cadre deployment committee meetings dating back to 2013, when Cyril Ramaphosa became its chairperson.

Today, the Commission revealed that it had acceded to the DA’s request. However, the Commission could only obtain minutes and records from 2018, with Ramaphosa claiming that the records from between 2013 and 2018 - when he was the chairperson - had somehow magically disappeared.

Despite this apparently desperate attempt to hide the truth about Ramaphosa’s personal role in deploying the cadres who captured and destroyed our State, the records dating from 2018 revealed that cadre deployment is indeed a system deliberately designed for the ANC to capture and loot the State.

The Zondo Commission dismissed Ramaphosa’s lame excuses that the deployment committee merely makes innocent “recommendations.” Instead, the Commission - on the basis of the minutes obtained as a result of the DA’s request - put it to Ramaphosa that the cadre deployment committee in fact decides who gets appointed to senior positions throughout the State.

The minutes obtained as a result of the DA’s pressure showed that Ramaphosa’s cadre deployment committee is so brazen in its quest to capture the State that it even influenced the appointment of two Constitutional Court judges as well as a judge at the Supreme Court of Appeal as recently as 2019. It is clear that the so-called “wasted years” of ANC pillage continues unabated. The fact that the ANC under Ramaphosa has sought to capture the Judiciary presents the gravest danger to South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

The DA hopes that, in its findings, the Zondo Commission will confirm the DA’s view that cadre deployment is an unconstitutional abuse of power that provides the very foundation for State capture and corruption.

But we will not sit on our hands in the meantime. The DA will write to the Zondo Commission to obtain the cadre deployment records revealed today. We also simply don’t believe the Ramaphosa’s pretence that no records exist from prior to 2018. We will therefore proceed with our court action to force the ANC to make public cadre deployment records from before 2018.

Most importantly, the DA has today formally tabled our End Cadre Deployment Bill in Parliament. The truth about cadre deployment is emerging, and now is the moment for all South Africans who want an end to this evil system to rally behind the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill.

Statement issued by Dr Leon Schreiber MP - DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 11 August 2021