ANC National Spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri. Picture: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers
The ANC has finally handed over documents containing minutes of their cadre deployment committee meetings to the opposing DA.
This comes after a war of words had ensued between the two parties over the handing over of the documents.
DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi confirmed to The Star yesterday that the ANC met the 5pm deadline to hand over the documents.
“Yes we can confirm that the ANC handed the documents digitally up to so far,” Malatsi said.
Last week, the Constitutional Court dismissed the ANC’s bid to appeal against an order by the Supreme Court of Appeal to hand over the records of their committee meetings since January 2013.
The DA, through its leader John Steenhuisen, had been threatening to have ANC leaders charged with contempt of court if they had not complied to the deadline that was set for 5pm yesterday.
The ANC had asked for an extension for their officials to prepare the documents before handing them over to the DA ahead of yesterday’s deadline.
Steenhuisen had initially said: “After delaying for more than three years following the DA’s initial request for these records to be made public to expose Ramaphosa’s role in state capture, the ANC yesterday came crawling back to the DA, begging us to give them more time,” Steenhuisen said.
The ANC in the meantime, called out the DA, saying they (DA) had opted to engage in “political gaslighting” on cadre deployment.
The party’s spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, before the handing over of the documents, said that the party was always going to comply with the apex court judgment.
“Following the ruling of the Constitutional Court on 12th February 2024, the ANC is in a position to comply with the order of the court, and will do so by the end of business today (yesterday).”
She added that some of the records for the period 2018 to 2021 were handed over to the Commission on State Capture (Zondo Commission) as far back as 2021, and were the subject of thorough scrutiny by the commission, including in testimony by President Ramaphosa and other national officials of the ANC.
“The ANC has nothing to hide… similarly, the ANC indicated openly to the commission as far back as 24 June 2021 that we have conducted a thorough search for minutes of the national deployment committee for the period December 2012 to December 2017.
“No minutes of the meetings of the national deployment committee for the relevant period could be found.
“The DA is fully aware of the facts, but has chosen to engage in deliberate misrepresentation, threats and false expectations of what might be contained in the records.
“In his testimony to the Zondo Commission, President Cyril Ramaphosa, committed that the ANC would do everything in its power to find the records. The ANC has done so and will hand over all records that have been found, and give an explanation regarding those records which either do not exist, or have not been able to be found,” she said.
She was referring to when Ramaphosa raised the matter with the Zondo Commission when he was giving testimony at the time.
The ANC further warned the DA not to misuse the records they handed over.
The ANC said it was not the only party that practises cadre deployment in the world.
They gave examples of countries such as the US, UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Mexico, Sweden, Poland and Korea, who also subscribed to the cadre deployment policy.
Bhengu-Motsiri said the DA and other parties in the country also used cadre deployment.
The Star
mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za