Johnathan Paoli
The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed the DA’s application to have the ruling party’s cadre deployment policy declared unconstitutional.
The case was previously argued before a full bench of judges in January, where the DA argued the policy allowed corruption to thrive and facilitated the looting of state coffers.
On Monday, the ANC handed its cadre deployment records to the DA following an order by the Constitutional Court.
Earlier, a quorum of eight justices dismissed ANC’s application to not hand over documents relating to the deployment of cadres from the year 2013 with costs, claiming that the appeal was “not in the interest of justice to hear the matter”.
The access application to ANC deployment records was brought by DA MP Leon Schreiber in 2021 in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
DA leader, John Steenhuisen, who was in court on Wednesday morning, and briefed the media on the dismissal of the party’s application.
Steenhuisen said that the Pretoria High Court erred in its judgment that dismissed, with costs, the party’s application to have the ANC’s cadre deployment policy unconstitutional.
Steenhuise said that as a party who respects the rule of law and the constitution, the party respected the judgement, however a number of errors in law and interpretation have been made in this judgement.
He called into question, particularly section 40 (d) of the judgement, where the ruling referred to a “bright line” between state and party that is observed, and that influencing government decisions was not the same as political meddling in the affairs of government.
“We believe this is a significant underestimation of the scourge of cadre deployment and its terrible effects on South African life, and the circumstances in which many of us and our citizens find ourselves in today,” Steenhuisen said.
In addition, the federal leader said that it also contradicts comments made during the Zondo commission that it should be illegal for anyone to influence the appointment of positions based on nothing other than their party affiliation.
Steenhuisen said that the party maintained that the practice of cadre deployment was a violation of the constitutional provisions which said that no one should be discriminated against nor advanced based on their party affiliations and felt that the judgement has missed out on this fundamental point.
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