The Democratic Alliance (DA) is giving the African National Congress (ANC) 30 days to comply with its Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application, which the opposition party said is based on the same rationale that led to its Constitutional Court victory.

The DA announced, during its election billboard unveiling on Tuesday, that it would submit a fresh PAIA application to obtain the ANC’s missing cadre deployment meeting minutes, a list of decisions, WhatsApp conversations, email threads, CVs, and all other documents relevant to the work of all regional and provincial cadre deployment committees dating back to January 2013.

This is the period when President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chairperson of that ANC committee.

DA Shadow Minister of Public Service and Administration Dr Leon Schreiber said that should the ANC fail to comply with the PAIA application within the 30 day deadline, the DA would take the matter to court.

Schreiber claimed that there was overwhelming evidence that the ANC also had active provincial and regional cadre deployment committees which subverted legal appointment processes in ANC-controlled provincial and municipal governments.

The DA would pursue the same records from provincial and regional committees following evidence from the State Capture Commission, and a series of documents apparently leaked to the DA, which Schreiber said confirmed the existence of these committees across provincial and municipal party structures.

For the PAIA application, the DA will use the precedent created in its Constitutional Court victory, which saw an order for the ANC to hand over complete records of its national cadre deployment committee.

Schreiber said the DA had been driving the fight against the ANC’s cadre deployment policy for years.

“In South Africa we need to address the root causes of State failure and of economic collapse . . . We have put on the table, through this billboard, through the manifesto announced by the [DA] leader, a very clear undertaking that we are the party that will crush corruption by outlawing cadre deployment,” he stated.

Last week, the DA sent a letter of demand to the ANC, indicating that it had analysed the 1 300 pages of cadre deployment records submitted, and that there were records missing.

“In fact, the very first item on the first minutes they sent to us, is the adoption of the previous meetings minutes, which they claimed do not exist. We also know that the WhatsApp conversations, email threads that were submitted to us mysteriously date to the day after Ramaphosa stopped being cadre deployment chairman,” Schreiber said.

He said there was much more that the ANC needed to hand over, adding that the ANC failed to respond to the DA’s lawyers’ letter which gave the ruling party two working days to comply and submit any missing records.

Schreiber announced that the DA was currently drawing up court papers for a Contempt of Court application against ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula.

“We will be using the precedent created in the Jacob Zuma matter because there are very important similarities. The ANC is now in contempt of an order that was confirmed by the Constitutional Court, just like Zuma was,” he said.

He said the DA would demand equal treatment, referring to Zuma being given jail time for being in contempt of the Constitutional Court.

“We will be asking the court to uphold that same standard for Fikile Mabalula. Just like we did in exposing the records of the national cadre deployment committee, the DA will defeat any attempt by the ANC to hide these provincial and regional records, because it is in the public interest to see how the ANC unlawfully interferes in public sector appointments which hollow out the State, facilitate corruption, and cripple the delivery of services to citizens,” Schreiber said.

‘BITTER FORMER MEMBERS’

Meanwhile, DA leader John Steenhuisen rubbished rumours by former members of the party that the DA had also practiced cadre deployment.

This after former DA member and Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi announced that the party practised the policy and that he would approach the court to force the DA to make those records public.

Steenhuisen challenged Baloyi and other former members to reveal which DA cadre was deployed into a position based on a party membership card. He urged Baloyi to bring the court action, countering that the party would meet him in court and force him to produce the so-called evidence.

“What we are dealing with here is people who are bitter because they have left the organisation and are trying to throw stones, trying to make themselves relevant,” said Steenhuisen.

He said the party had placed its Cadre Deployment Bill in Parliament and it had promised that should it be sworn into government it would table an End Cadre Deployment Bill, within the first 100 days of taking office.