Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
23 February 2024 | 18:12 CAT

The DA says the ANC’s deployment committee interfered in appointments across the state, and even the judiciary. Image: DA website

The ANC has met the constitutional court deadline of 5 pm Monday to hand over its cadre deployment records from 2013 onward to the Democratic Alliance.

The DA says the ANC’s deployment committee interfered in appointments across the State and even extended its tentacles into the judiciary.

This is the first revelation from the ANC’s cadre deployment records.

The party says the documents revealed that despite President Cyril Ramaphosa telling the Zondo Commission into State Capture, the ANC could not appoint judges; it still attempted to have a hand in the judiciary and the chief justice’s independence.

“All this has been underscored by the ANC’s own records recently obtained by the DA following an order of the Constitutional Court. The minutes reveal that the ANC unlawfully interfered with appointments across the State, reaching all the way to the highest court in the land,” said Leon Schreiber, the DA’s MP who spearheaded the DA’s efforts to obtain the records.

The records also contain a letter from the late ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte to “Cde Ronald Lamola” – the current justice and correctional services minister – dated 2 March 2020.

In the letter, Duarte, who served as the deployment committee’s secretary then, expressed her concern that a woman advocate with no judicial experience was removed from the shortlist to fill a vacancy on the Constitutional Court bench.

Duarte also complained that the list was published without communicating with the advocate. She wrote: “The process is inconsistent with Section 174(5) which broadens the scope to include candidates with no judicial experience.”

Lamola needs to follow through on Duarte’s request.

Schreiber said the documents show “the ANC’s national cadre deployment committee to be the biggest racketeering syndicate in our country’s democratic history. No institution is spared from interference, including the judiciary and the highest court in the land.”

The Zondo Commission found that cadre deployment contributed to state capture and said the policy was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany.