By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula jailed for contempt of court after failing to provide the records of its cadre committee while President Cyril Ramaphosa was its chairperson.
DA MP Leon Schreiber in 2021 brought an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to obtain the ANC cadre deployment committee when Ramaphosa became its chairperson in his then capacity as the party’s deputy president.
However, the ANC refused, and Schreiber headed to court.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled that the ANC could not appeal against an earlier loss in the high court on the matter.
The ANC had approached the appellate court in the hope of overturning a February 2023 ruling in the Johannesburg High Court which directed the ANC to provide the DA with its internal records pertaining to cadre deployment within five court days.
The SCA has now dismissed the ANC’s bid in this regard, on the grounds that “there are no reasonable prospects of success in an appeal and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard”.
Schreiber said despite the SCA court ruling the ANC has been defiant in handing over the records.
“In response to the ANC’s defiance of this court ruling, the DA is approaching the court for an order of contempt and will seek the committal to prison of ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Since the ANC’s doomed appeal at the SCA was filed under Mbalula’s name, he has made himself guilty of the same contempt of court offence that led to the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma.”
Schreiber referred to the matter where Zuma refused to comply with a Constitutional Court order to appear before the State Capture Commission. The former president was subsequently sentenced to 15 months jail time, but was unlawfully released after hardly two months.
Schreiber said the DA will launch a court application to “send Mbalula to prison using the very precedent established in the Zuma case.”
“It is time the ANC learns that there are consequences for undermining justice in South Africa. The deadline for handing over the cadre deployment records to the DA was 8 September.”
Schreiber added that the DA received a letter from the ANC’s lawyers, indicating that the party intended heading to the Constitutional Court to appeal.
“The DA subsequently wrote to the ANC’s lawyers, giving them until 12:00 on 20 September to file their papers if the party intended to proceed with the appeal. The ANC failed to meet this deadline.
“Yesterday, the DA again wrote to the ANC’s lawyers, indicating that the 15-day court deadline for filing an appeal lapsed the day before, on 26 September. This means that the ANC is now in contempt of the SCA ruling, “Schreiber said.
The second piece of litigation the DA has brought on the matter is to attempt to have the practice of cadre deployment declared unconstitutional as a whole. When this matter was heard in the Pretoria High Court in January 2023, lawyers for the ANC argued that there was little evidence that the deployment committee actually succeeded in all its desired placements, or that the practice per se led to corruption.
The ruling on the constitutionality of cadre deployment is still pending.