By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane is challenging the party’s federal council chairperson Helen Zille to prove he had a hand in appointments made in structures where the party governs.
This comes after Zille tweeted on X seemingly confirming that DA also practiced cadre deployment, adding that it was introduced under Maimane but was later cancelled.
The tweet has since been deleted.
Maimane’s statement follows Xiluva party leader Bongani Baloyi’s post on X who detailed how appointments by the DA are strictly approved by its federal executive.
Maimane is a former leader of the DA, while Baloyi was the DA mayor of MidVaal Municipality.
Build One SA (BOSA) denied Zille’s accusation that Maimane introduced the policy while DA leader.
The party called on Zille to release all minutes of the federal executive (FedEx) in which Maimane was present, including ones capturing a decision to do away with the policy.
“There was no such a policy in the DA under Maimane. In fact, when he took office, Zille’s own cadre deployment policy – “fit for purpose” was expunged.
“That policy led to what appears to be a patronage network of DA persons and affiliates in the City of Cape Town and Western Cape,” the party said.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said, that the DA would never get involved in the selection and appointment of senior officials.
They follow the prescripts of the law when appointments were made in local government or any other sphere of government.
“We have never asked for the political affiliations for municipal managers or any other senior staff in any municipality where we are at, Such would be a violation of the Public Service Act, but would also be a violation of the principles which we believe have underpinned our ability to produce a government that produces clean accountable governance across all government departments that spend money on the people and not politicians and which gets basic service delivery absolutely right,” said Steenhuisen.
He said it was not possible to interfere in the selection and appointment processes as they always follow the law.
Meanwhile ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has challenged opposition parties to release their cadre deployment documents following the party’s release of its files.
Ramaphosa was speaking in Durban ahead of the party’s election manifesto on Saturday.
“We have given our records and we now wait for other parties that have also had the cadre deployment experiences and processes, to also now reveal the records of their own federal committees.
“Because what we have always said is that the ANC deploys people on the basis of the ability to do the work and there is nothing sinister about deploying people to do the work that needs to be done.”