Mantashe at Zondo: ANC doesn’t have a ‘cadre deployment policy’

Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe on Wednesday defended the ANC’s deployment policy at the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture.

Mantashe appeared before commission chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to give parliamentary oversight-related evidence in his capacity as the national chairperson and former secretary-general of the ANC.

This is after Zondo heard testimony from former and current MPs earlier this year on how Parliament failed to prevent large-scale looting of the state and how Parliament’s oversight function wasn’t properly funded.

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During the proceedings on Wednesday, evidence leader Alec Freund told the commission that ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule was scheduled to appear before Zondo. However, the ANC sent Mantashe instead.

Mantashe said he had submitted an affidavit that detailed how the ANC performed its functions including its policies, how the party elects its president and parliamentary oversight accountability model.

The minister defended the ANC’s deployment policy, saying the party does not have a “cadre deployment”, which has come under fire from the DA.

“In the ANC we don’t have a policy called cadre deployment, we have a deployment policy.

“I address the issue of cadre deployment in my affidavit for two further reasons: to give the commission an appreciation of the genesis of the ANC policy development and deployment so that it can evaluate and pronounce on the validity of the request made by the leader of the opposition, Mr John Steenhuisen, on the third of February 2021 that the state capture commission should tackle and end the ANC policy of cadre deployment,” he said.

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“The deployment committee doesn’t deploys directors, deputy directors, it is limited in the state to director-generals and deputy director-generals that’s it. Below that is normal.”

He further said the deployment committee did not make appointments but instead it just made recommendations.

Last month, the DA submitted a Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) application to President Cyril Ramaphosa in order to obtain records of the ANC’s “cadre deployment” programme.

The DA argued that revelations at the commission were sufficient proof that the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment was “the fundamental cause of state capture and corruption in our country”.

Watch the proceedings below, courtesy of the SABC: