ANC flag outside Luthuli House on 15 July 2022. Picture: Michel Bega
The African National Congress (ANC) has lost its bid to appeal a ruling that deemed the party in contempt for not providing all its cadre deployment records to the Democratic Alliance (DA).
In February, the ANC made the records of its deployment committee meeting minutes public after pursuing a case in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to prevent the DA from accessing the information.
However, several records were still missing, leading the DA to seek court intervention once more in a bid to release the outstanding documents, including meeting minutes, emails, and WhatsApp conversations, dating back to 2013.
The ANC heavily redacted the documents, despite, according to the DA, having no legal basis to do so under the court order.
Additionally, the party failed to provide any records for a five-year period when President Cyril Ramaphosa served as chairperson of the deployment committee.
On Friday, Gauteng High Court in Pretoria Judge Brad Wanless found that the ANC’s appeal was “simply repeated” the arguments the party already raised in its initial application.
“In the premises, the applicants have failed to raise anything new flowing from this court’s judgment dealing with the prospects of success in this matter on appeal,” the judgment reads.
Wanless agreed with the DA that the ruling ordering the ANC to retrieve deleted information was correct, “both in fact and in law”.
He, therefore, ruled that the ANC failed to show that “another court would come to a different decision” and that the party should be granted leave to appeal.
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“The applicants have, in this application, been unable to substantiate, both in fact and/or law, reasons as to why this court allegedly erred, which would give rise to a court of appeal setting aside the judgment and order made by this court.
“In the premises, this application by the applicants for leave to appeal should be dismissed,” the judge said.
“This court should also add that in making such an order, it further bears in mind the oft-repeated narrative of the courts of appeal that the court a quo should be slow to grant applications for leave to appeal in matters where the prospects of success are not good.
“This avoids the unnecessary burdening of the rolls of the appeal courts,” Wanless added.
The ANC was ordered to pay all legal costs on a punitive scale.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomed the ruling and called on the ANC to “stop its Stalingrad tactics” and “comply fully with the court’s orders”.
“In a victory for transparency and accountability, Judge Wanless reaffirmed that the ANC, alongside Fikile Mbalula and Thapelo Masilela, failed to comply with a previous court order requiring them to release critical documents related to cadre deployment.
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“This ruling marks a decisive blow to the ANC’s efforts to shield its corrupt cadre deployment network from public scrutiny and further exposes the party’s role in facilitating state capture,” DA national spokesperson Willie Aucamp said in a statement on Friday.
“The people of South Africa deserve to know the truth about the corrupt practices that have undermined our institutions and compromised our democracy.”
The DA initially lodged a request for the ANC’s records in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) in 2021 as part of the party’s greater pursuit to have cadre deployment declared unconstitutional and illegal.
However, the party saw its application being dismissed with costs in February.
The DA immediately lodged an appeal, signalling its intention to go all the way to the ConCourt.
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