By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the chairperson of the State Capture Commission, acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, requesting that he urgently consider approaching the Constitutional Court seeking an order of perjury against President Cyril Ramaphosa over misleading testimony delivered before the Commission.
The party is seeking a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) order against the President for “misleading” the commission during his testimony on 28 April 2021.
“Ramaphosa denied that the ANC’s cadre deployment committee sought to influence appointments to the judiciary. After he initially denied that the appointment of judges was ever even discussed,” DA MP Leon Schreiber said in a statement on Monday.
Schreiber argued that Ramaphosa’s denial was “untruthful” in light of the ANC’s deployment committee minutes, which was made public two weeks ago.
The minutes, from 2018 to 2021, appear to show how the ANC ran a parallel deployment process to fill certain positions at several government departments, agencies and the boards of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
According to the minutes from a meeting held on 22 March 2019, the committee preselected the appointment of judges for vacant posts in the judiciary.
The ConCourt at the time had two vacant positions, while the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) had one.
But Ramaphosa defended the ANC’S policy of deployment of its members into the public service during his testimony.
The President argued the policy was an important part of implementing the ANC’s mandate.
He also indicated that the deployment committee did not keep records of its meetings from 2012 to 2017.
Schreiber said the minutes show how the ANC interferes in the appointment of judges, saying it “threatens to create a constitutional crisis”.
“It is simply untenable that, instead of protecting our country’s constitutional order by telling the truth and undertaking to end cadre deployment, the sitting President of the Republic seemingly chose to mislead the Commission in order to protect the ANC,” he further said.
Last week, the DA called for parliamentary debate over ANC’s cadre deployment minutes as well as the state capture report.
Here is DA statement:DA on apparent perjury by Cyril Ramaphosa.