By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Johannesburg High Court has dismissed African National Congress (ANC) application for leave to appeal an earlier ruling, which had ordered the party to release complete records of its national cadre deployment committee dating back to 1 January 2013.
The court found that “there is no reasonable prospect of success in an appeal, nor is there any reason to refer the appeal to another court. The application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs, according to the Democratic Alliance (DA).”
“The original ruling stands, which means that the ANC has five days to hand over to the DA complete records of its cadre deployment committee,” DA MP Leon Schreiber said in a statement on Tuesday.
Schreiber said the DA believed that the ANC’s attempt to hide the records was to prevent exposing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “personal complicity in state capture and corruption as cadre deployment chairman”.
The system of cadre deployment locks skilled applicants out of employment in the state. It is also the root cause of service delivery failures, because it leads to the appointment of cadres on the basis of loyalty to the ANC, rather than on merit.
“In exchange for this deployment state officials are expected to serve the interests of the ANC, including through corruption and patronage, rather than the people of South Africa,” Schreiber added.
The DA is also seeking to have cadre deployment declared unconstitional and illegal by the courts.
The matter was heard by the Pretoria High Court in January this year and the judgment has been reserved.