High court orders ANC to pay DA’s costs in cadre deployment case

The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered the ANC to pay the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) costs in its challenge against the governing party’s cadre deployment policy.

The high court on Wednesday morning heard the first leg of the DA’s application to force the ANC to release records of its cadre deployment committee from 2013, when President Cyril Ramaphosa chaired the committee.

DA MP and spokesperson on public service and administration, Leon Schreiber, confirmed to The Citizen the high court ordered the ANC to pay the DA’s costs for Wednesday’s hearing.

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Schreiber said this was because the ANC had failed to file its heads of argument for the past 11 months, opposing the DA’s application to access the cadre deployment committee’s documents.

He said the ANC was given 10 days to file its court papers or else it would be forced to release the records of the committee in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

“Today’s case was about transparency to have access to the information and to share it with the public,” Schreiber said.

Earlier this year, the official opposition party filed court papers asking the high court to declare the ANC’s cadre deployment policy unlawful and unconstitutional.

The second leg of the court challenge to declare the governing party’s policy unlawful and unconstitutional is expected to be heard in January 2023, Schreiber said.

The DA believes the ANC’s cadre deployment policy is inconsistent with the Public Service Act and contributes to corruption in government.

The ANC is opposing the DA’s application.

The Citizen tried to get comment from ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe, but he did not respond to our requests.

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