Cadre deployment brought transformation: Mantashe defends controversial policy

ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has again defended the party’s cadre deployment policy, telling parliament the ANC will continue to deploy its capable cadres.

Mantashe’s comments come a day after the Constitutional Court dismissed his party’s application for leave to appeal against lower courts judgments that it should hand over records of its national deployment committee to the DA. The ANC has four working days to hand over the records.

Mantashe said the DA may celebrate its legal victory but in reality, the policy had changed the face of government administration and the courts.

“What it has done, has changed a situation where every DG [director-general] was a white male in 1994. It has changed the reality where every judge was a white male, where every mayor was a white male. Cadre development has changed that reality,” said Mantashe who was taking part in the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address (Sona).

“So, run to court, do everything, but the reality is we will do it. You will get your report but we will continue deploying people who are capable. That’s it,” he said.

Speaking earlier in the same debate, DA leader John Steenhuisen described the DA’s victory in court as evidence his party would defeat the ANC and rescue South Africa.

“If you had any doubt that the DA is the party to defeat the ANC and rescue South Africa, look no further than the Constitutional Court ruling issued yesterday, which compels the ANC to hand over complete records of its cadre deployment committee dating back to January 1 2013, when Mr Ramaphosa, under Mr Zuma, became its chairperson, he said.

Steenhuisen said the DA expected the ANC to abide by the ruling to expose “its dirty cadre secrets” and how Ramaphosa’s committee laid the foundation for state capture and the subsequent collapse of service delivery.

“If the ANC tries to subvert the rule of law, we will not hesitate to send its leaders to prison for contempt of court, using the very same precedent created when Zuma was sent to prison for the same offence.

“So mark your calendars: in just four days’ time, we will find this president’s fingerprints all over cadre deployment and state capture, the very things he spent six years telling us he is against,” he said.

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