The Democratic Alliance's (DA) Leon Schreiber said his party will submit a fresh Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to the African National Congress (ANC) to obtain meeting minutes, a list of decisions, WhatsApp conversations, email threads, and CVs to the work of all regional and provincial cadre deployment committees dating back to January 1, 2013.
This is after the party confirmed that evidence was leaked to them from the State Capture Commission and a series of documents confirming the active role of committees across the party's structures.
"We will now submit applications as per the PAIA to obtain and expose all minutes and records from the ANC’s nine provincial and dozens of regional cadre deployment committees," the party said.
This also comes after the DA lost its bid to have the ANC's cadre deployment policy declared unconstitutional.
Their application was dismissed with costs by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
It vowed to appeal to the court judgment.
The announcement was made on Tuesday in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng where party leaders, led by John Steenhuisen, unveiled their new electioneering billboard.
"Crush corruption! Outlaw cadre deployment," the billboard reads.
The ANC handed over the cadre deployment records to the DA last week.
Schreiber said minutes titled: “Need to reconcile the work of the Committee and the provincial deployment committees”.
He said that this confirmed the existence of additional cadre deployment committees in provinces and municipalities.
Additionally, a policy document that the ANC previously handed over to the State Capture Commission also confirmed the existence of regional deployment committees.
He said this was further confirmed by two leaked documents entitled: “deployment committee meeting” dated August 2, 2023 from a regional deployment committee meeting in the North West province.
This also included a letter entitled: “Municipal managers, all directors, and all senior managers” in municipalities in the ANC’s Chris Hani region of the Eastern Cape, which directed them to meet with the regional committee and emphasising that “no apologies will be accepted."
"The implications of these revelations could not be more serious," Schreiber said, adding that the ANC national cadre deployment committee that destroyed departments and state-owned enterprises was doing the same thing at the provincial and municipal level to capture and control administrative appointments.
According to the DA, cadre deployment is the root cause of corruption and continues to collapse service delivery.
This is despite the party also being accused of practising cadre deployment in Cape Town and other metros where it governed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has also called on the DA to give them minutes of their meetings to prove they do not practise cadre deployment.
This is after he accused them of being hypocrites and also practising cadre deployment where it governs.
The former DA mayor in Midvaal, Bongani Baloyi said the DA was also practising cadre deployment.
He said the municipality could not conclude a senior staff appointment without the “approval of Fedex.”
He mentioned that it was standard procedure that all mayors apply to get the approval of Fedex before the municipality would conclude the appointment.
Baloyi also called on them to release the minutes of Fedex to clear their name.
Steenhuisen denied claims that his party also practised cadre deployment.
In terms of PAIA, the ANC has 30 days to comply with the DA’s application, which is based on the same rationale that led to its Constitutional Court victory.
IOL Politics