“We have obtained some leaked documents, which are in the statement we put out, which are minutes from regional deployment committees. In one case from North West you can very clearly see how local ANC leaders get around the table and say 'we must deploy this cadre to the head of water services in a particular municipality'. They also interfere in the provincial government there. This is quite a damning new revelation.”
The opposition party is this week expected to launch a contempt of court order challenge seeking jail time for ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula for reasons including that most of the records it released to the DA were redacted and it did not release all the requested cadre deployment records.
The DA had requested the ANC to release all records between 2013 until 2021 but the ANC has since said the records are not available.
The ANC said the cadre deployment committee kept no minutes during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s tenure as its chair and records associated with the committee were lost when an administrator’s laptop crashed last year.
“We also announced we sent a legal letter to the ANC last week, pointing out to them they have not complied with the order of the Constitutional Court to hand over full records from 2013 to the present for a couple of reasons. There are extensive redactions to the point where some documents are unreadable because they've blocked out all the pertinent information, the very purpose of the court order. They have defied the court order in that regard,” said Schreiber.
“They made no records available from prior to 2018. That's despite the fact the order said it must be from 2013. To us, that's a very clear indication they're trying to cover up for President Cyril Ramaphosa, because between 2013 and 2018 he was the chair of the deployment committee. The same goes for their claims they don't have emails or WhatsApps from before 2018.”
“It's impossible for emails that were clearly circulated as standard practice to all members of the deployment committee, for none of them to have any of the records. Then there's the claim by the ANC that a laptop crashed mysteriously in 2021. This is going to create an even bigger problem for the ANC because they say the laptop crashed months after we initiated the court processes. They never disclosed to the court clearly pertinent information that has affected what was before the court. Withholding information from a court is a very serious offence and a very serious act of contempt.”
Schreiber said the DA is specifically asking the court for Mbalula to be held responsible and jailed as he is the ANC's deponent in the court case.
TimesLIVE
How the DA is intensifying its fight against the ANC’s cadre deployment
Image: Kgothatso Madisa
The DA is intensifying its fight against the ANC’s cadre deployment committee, announcing on Tuesday several of its next steps, including the unveiling of a “Crush corruption! Outlaw cadre deployment” billboard on the N12/N3 in Johannesburg.
The DA also announced it will go after the governing party’s provincial and regional deployment committees and launch a contempt of court challenge against the ANC this week.
The party said it has found the ANC not only has a national structure usually chaired by the deputy president but also has the same structures at provincial and regional levels.
The DA will this week launch a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request for all the records of the provincial and regional deployment committees, using the same precedent it used to obtain the ANC’s national cadre deployment records.
“We have found in our analysis of the records that is not only one cadre deployment committee, and we're going to have to start changing how we speak about cadre deployment in the ANC because there's a national cadre deployment committee, nine provincial committees as well as a number of regional committees,” said DA MP Leon Schreiber.
“We know this because the ANC in its national minutes says the national committee must meet with the provincial deployment committee, so it's a smoking gun confirmation that this practice also takes place at provincial and regional levels.
Ramaphosa dares DA to release its own cadre deployment records
“We have obtained some leaked documents, which are in the statement we put out, which are minutes from regional deployment committees. In one case from North West you can very clearly see how local ANC leaders get around the table and say 'we must deploy this cadre to the head of water services in a particular municipality'. They also interfere in the provincial government there. This is quite a damning new revelation.”
The opposition party is this week expected to launch a contempt of court order challenge seeking jail time for ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula for reasons including that most of the records it released to the DA were redacted and it did not release all the requested cadre deployment records.
The DA had requested the ANC to release all records between 2013 until 2021 but the ANC has since said the records are not available.
The ANC said the cadre deployment committee kept no minutes during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s tenure as its chair and records associated with the committee were lost when an administrator’s laptop crashed last year.
“We also announced we sent a legal letter to the ANC last week, pointing out to them they have not complied with the order of the Constitutional Court to hand over full records from 2013 to the present for a couple of reasons. There are extensive redactions to the point where some documents are unreadable because they've blocked out all the pertinent information, the very purpose of the court order. They have defied the court order in that regard,” said Schreiber.
“They made no records available from prior to 2018. That's despite the fact the order said it must be from 2013. To us, that's a very clear indication they're trying to cover up for President Cyril Ramaphosa, because between 2013 and 2018 he was the chair of the deployment committee. The same goes for their claims they don't have emails or WhatsApps from before 2018.”
“It's impossible for emails that were clearly circulated as standard practice to all members of the deployment committee, for none of them to have any of the records. Then there's the claim by the ANC that a laptop crashed mysteriously in 2021. This is going to create an even bigger problem for the ANC because they say the laptop crashed months after we initiated the court processes. They never disclosed to the court clearly pertinent information that has affected what was before the court. Withholding information from a court is a very serious offence and a very serious act of contempt.”
Schreiber said the DA is specifically asking the court for Mbalula to be held responsible and jailed as he is the ANC's deponent in the court case.
TimesLIVE
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