Defending the African National Congress's (ANC's) policy of cadre deployment, Deputy President Paul Mashatile told the National Council of Provinces that it had always been the ANC's policy to "ensure [they] deploy the best".

"Honourable Deputy President, you could have fooled me," responded the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Sonja Boshoff, as she asked her follow-up question during Thursday's plenary.

Boshoff posed the original question, as follows: "Whether, with reference to his role to implement rapid response on service delivery interventions, cadre deployment has led to the lack of service delivery as many officials within the municipalities do not possess the prerequisite qualifications to undertake the necessary maintenance of infrastructure that is leading to excessive sewer spillages?"

"Our previous responses have clarified that the government has no cadre deployment policy, legislation or procedure. Nonetheless, the ANC established a cadre development and deployment process after the democratic breakthrough in order to safeguard democracy and good governance, while assuring rapid and purposeful transformation," Mashatile said.

"The logic behind this process is to ensure that the most suitable practices are used in recruitment, prioritising appropriate placement of skills, especially during the transition period and beyond."

He said the ANC had discussed it before the advent of democracy, in Lusaka, and this was where the "cadre development policy" came from.

He said the ANC even had the OR Tambo School of Leadership to ensure its cadres were qualified.

Mashatile said when it came to the deployment of mayors and speakers, they made sure that it was the "most qualified" who were selected.

"Almost all of our mayors are being interviewed," he said, adding that the mayors for the metros were interviewed by the ANC's top seven, led by the president, and the other mayors were interviewed by the ANC's provincial executive committees.

According to Mashatile, it was "incorrect to link cadre deployment with service delivery challenges faced by our municipalities".

He said government last year adopted the national framework toward the implementation of professionalisation of the public sector.

"In our view, the professionalisation of the public sector requires a non-partisan approach which embraces the merit principles in all staffing practices in the public sector. For this to be realised, the public sector must be non-partisan by insulating it from the politics of political parties.

"This is important for the bureaucracy to continue to implement its political mandate loyally and diligently, as set by voters and the governing party or parties, yet refrain from being a political actor itself.

"The ANC government has always argued for the professionalisation of the public service, including the development and adoption of the Public Service Act, which demands a credible process, panel-driven interviews, verification of qualification and contestable outcomes.

"We remain committed to building a patriotic, professional public service, with the necessary technical knowledge to deliver services for the people."

What he didn't mention about the framework, adopted by Cabinet on 19 October last year, was that it distanced itself from the ANC's cadre deployment policy.

Under the heading, "High level proposals for implementing professionalisation in the public sector", the framework states: "Recruitment and selection practices based on deployment have gained notoriety which has spawned cynicism.

"Some even questioned their constitutionality related to the principle of equality, and they may have a point if deployment practices are to be looked at from the perspective of Section 197 (3) of the Constitution, which states that 'no employee of the Public Service may be favoured or prejudiced only because that person supports a particular political party or cause'.

"The recommendation that the panel is making is that deployment practices ought to be ditched in favour of a merit-based recruitment and selection system, which it regards as key to building a capable, ethical and developmental state. This also contributes toward changing a surging negative public perception about employment practices in the public service."

The proposal states the following in a list of proposals - "Merit-based recruitment and selection: Recommendation that deployment practices are to be ditched in favour of a merit-based recruitment and selection system, which it regards as key in building a capable, ethical, and developmental state and is also about contributing toward changing a surging negative public perception about employment practices in the public sector. In a merit-based system of recruitment and selection, well-qualified candidates with capability to perform a public function would still make it anyway without any political shore up."

The ANC's Kenny Mmoiemang said they "reject with the contempt it deserves" the "information peddlers masquerading as the Democratic Alliance" conflating deployment with employment.

He said "many of our competent and skilled officials" were dismissed when the DA took over the Western Cape.

The Inkatha Freedom Party's Nhlanhla Hadebe said there was legislation which called for a fair and efficient public administration.

"Cadre deployment is proven to be the opposite of this," Hadebe said.

Mashatile said nobody was deployed in government, unless they underwent a rigorous process.

He said that, if the ANC felt someone would be a good candidate for a director-general (DG), for instance, they would ask them to apply. They then went through the interview process - and, if they failed, they were not appointed.

"We don't just say you are an ANC person, go and be a DG," Mashatile said.

He said the interviews were tough, they wanted qualifications, which were verified.

"We don't just take anybody from the street."

He said the "cadre development policy" was a "very good policy".

"We want the best of the best to go and do the job."

The DA and ANC have been at loggerheads about cadre deployment for quite some time.

Shortly before the release of the final Zondo Commission report in June last year, the DA lodged an application, with a founding affidavit by its leader John Steenhuisen, to ask the North Gauteng High Court to declare the ANC policy of cadre deployment unlawful and unconstitutional.

About two weeks later, the final report was released, in which Chief Justice Raymond Zondo took a dim view of cadre deployment, stating that it was unlawful and unconstitutional, and that by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC's own admission, cadre deployment could be abused to facilitate corruption and state capture.

In his report, Zondo stated: "The evidence has demonstrated that state capture has been facilitated by the appointment of pliant individuals to powerful positions in state entities. The essential danger remains that appointment processes which are conducted behind closed doors and outside the constitutionally and legally stipulated processes are open to abuse."

Filing a responding affidavit to the DA on behalf of the ANC, in his then capacity as the party's treasurer-general, Mashatile disagreed: "It does not follow that because power was abused and resources were misappropriated by office bearers of the ANC acting on frolics of their own within the state apparatus that the policy of cadre deployment should be declared unconstitutional."

Mashatile contended there was no causal relationship between the policy of cadre deployment and State capture or corruption.

Mashatile denied that several key figures in State capture, including Brian Molefe, Anoj Singh, Siyabonga Gama, Dudu Myeni, Hlaudi Motsoeneng and others, were deployed by the ANC.

"None of the members of the Gupta family were members of the Deployment Committee. None of them was tasked with implementing the Deployment Policy. The 'capturing of the state by the Gupta family' is accordingly irrelevant for considering the legal validity or constitutionality of the Deployment Policy," Mashatile said.

Furthermore, Mashatile claimed that the ANC was not bound by Chapter 10 of the Constitution, which dealt with the public service.

Both Zondo and the DA relied heavily on Section 197(3), contained in Chapter 10 of the Constitution, in their critiques of the ANC's cadre deployment policy.

The court heard arguments in this case in January, but the judgment is still awaited.

In a separate court matter, the DA's Leon Schreiber approached the courts for relief after the ANC denied his application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to obtain the ANC's cadre deployment committee's records from January 2013, when Ramaphosa chaired the committee, and state capture was at its height.

The high court and the Supreme Court of Appeal found in favour, and ordered the ANC to hand over the records, but the party took the matter to the Constitutional Court.