ANC National Spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri. Picture: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers
The ANC has launched an outright attack on the DA for the “cynical and hypocritical distortion of the cadre deployment narrative by the DA and opposition parties”.
The party also slammed “some” media organisations that “overlook the public statements made by prominent members of the DA where they admit their involvement in the DA’s own form of cadre deployment”.
The DA yesterday said the party was going back to court to force the governing party to submit all of its cadre deployment meeting minutes.
They said they believed ANC had not submitted all documents related to its cadre deployment policy.
The party announced that they would head back to the Constitutional Court.
The party is also going to court to seek for ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, to be found in contempt of court for allegedly failing to hand over all of the cadre deployment documents.
The two have been at loggerheads over the ruling party’s policy for years with the DA seeking to outlaw the policy.
In a statement after the party addressed the media at its headquarters, Luthuli House, in Johannesburg yesterday its spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the DA and other opposition political parties were distorting the cadre deployment narrative.
Bhengu-Motsiri said the parties are bristling with their characteristic “political opportunism and adventurism”.
“The ANC notes that some media organisations have chosen to overlook the public statements made by prominent members of the DA, both past and present, where they admit their involvement in the DA’s own form of cadre deployment.
“We reiterate our position that cadre deployment is a globally accepted practice and will not offer further comment on the theatrics of the DA and its pact,” she said.
Nine days ago, the ANC handed over documents containing minutes of their cadre deployment committee meetings to the DA after they had been hauled over the handing over of the documents.
This comes after 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 Star
mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za