The African National Congress (ANC) has appealed the Gauteng High Court judgment that it was in contempt of an order for not handing over all records of the deployment committee when President Cyril Ramaphosa was its chairperson.
The Democratic Court (DA) had gone to court to force the ANC to give it full records of the deployment committee and the court gave the ANC 15 days to hand over the records.
This was after the DA complained that the ANC did not submit all the records between 2013 and 2018. This was at the time Ramaphosa was chairing the deployment committee.
The ANC said in its appeal application that it did not act in bad faith when it did not give the records to the official opposition.
It said the court misdirected itself by calling for Ramaphosa to submit the records of the deployment committee.
“The honourable court has misdirected itself by finding that the affidavit of the president of the ANC as the chairperson of the national cadre deployment committee of the ANC from 2013 to 2018 was necessary, on the following grounds.
“The respondents have admitted that there is a genuine dispute of fact regarding the period from January 2013 to 2018, and as such, they will not persist with a prayer relating to the disclosure of the aforesaid information. The court has noted this concession in its ex tempore judgment.
“The version of the applicants is that there were no records kept for the said period. This respondent was not able to dispute this version, and opted to abandon his case in that regard. It is common cause that the present ANC president, His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa, was the chairperson of the national cadre deployment committee at the aforesaid time. Based on the above, it was then a misdirection for the honourable court to make a finding that the president of the ANC must still explain the period in which the respondent is no longer raising an issue about,” said the ANC in its papers.
Ramaphosa could no longer be expected to raise this issue when it was moot.
It added late former deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte kept the records of the cadre deployment committee as she was the national co-ordinator of the committee.
The ANC also took issue that a laptop of a senior official of the party must be scrutinised to find the missing or deleted records.
The ANC and the DA have been in and out of court over the deployment committee’s records when Ramaphosa was in charge.
But ANC leaders have also accused the DA of practising cadre deployment where it governs in the Western Cape and other municipalities.
The ruling party has also said cadre deployment was not only practised in South Africa as this was done in most of the democratic states in the world.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
IOL Politics