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.”

The ANC’s latest application for leave to appeal confirms that the party is terrified of the implications that would flow from revealing Ramaphosa’s personal complicity in cadre deployment corruption, a system found by the Zondo Commission to have “facilitated state capture.”

In its application for leave to appeal, the ANC notes that “it is common cause that the present ANC president, His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa, was the chairperson of the national cadre

deployment committee at the aforesaid time.” However, the ANC now claims that it was “a misdirection for the honourable court to make a finding that the president of the ANC must still explain the period.”

The ANC needs to understand that the DA will never relent on this matter, because it is foundational to our mission to rescue South Africa. Should the ANC continue to hold the court in contempt after its latest doomed appeal fails, the DA will not hesitate to further escalate our war against cadre deployment by applying to send Mbalula and other ANC officials to prison for criminal contempt of court.

It is clear that the ANC’s latest delaying tactic is doomed to fail like all that have come before. The simple reality of this case is that the Constitutional Court upheld and order that the ANC must hand over “all” records related to its national cadre deployment committee dating back to 1 January 2013, when Ramaphosa became cadre chairman. Unless the ANC claims to be so illiterate as to not understand the meaning of the word “all,” it is clear that the party knows it is only a matter of time until the DA exposes Cyril Ramaphosa’s fingerprints all over the cadre deployment project to capture and collapse the South African state.

Tick tock.

The order handed down by the Johannesburg High Court on 3 April read as follows:

The ANC must, within 15 days, give effect to the original court order by:

1. Providing to the DA all of the information that has already been disclosed and that is further required to be disclosed in unredacted form so as to ensure all names of persons are legible;

2. Providing to the DA all of the information related to the processes and decisions of the ANC cadre deployment committee during the period 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2021, including but not limited to minutes, draft minutes, notes, attendance registers, communications and decisions of the deployment committee whether prepared by or communicated to staff members of the ANC, members of the committee, chairpersons of the committee, and government officials; and

3. Emails, Whatsapps and other social media communications between and among members of the committee and between committee members, committee chairpersons and government officials.

4. Providing the DA with copies of all attachments to emails, Whatsapps and other social media communications;

5. Making available the following items to a neutral third-party information technology expert agreed to by the DA for the purposes of extracting information required to be disclosed by the court order:

6. The hard drive and laptop of ANC official Thepelo Masilela;

7. The personal email of Thapelo Masilela; and

8. The laptop of ANC official Lungi Mtshali.

9. The ANC is directed to report to the court and to the DA’s attorneys, in writing and under oath, of its compliance with the court order.

10. The ANC is ordered to pay the costs of this application on the attorney and client scale such to include the costs of two counsel.

Issued by Leon Schreiber, DA Shadow Minister of Public Service and Administration, 26 April 2024