DA wants reasons behind ANC’s past decisions on key appointments

The DA says it seeks to understand the reasons behind the ANC’s past decisions to appoint certain individuals to key positions at state-owned enterprises.

Last week, the High Court in Johannesburg ordered the ANC to hand over records of its cadre deployment committee, dating from 2013, when the governing party then deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa became its chairperson.

In line with the court’s ruling, the ANC must provide the opposition party with records, including committee meeting minutes, Whatsapp conversations, email threads and CVs, in terms of the Promotion to Access to Information Act.

However, shortly after the judgment was handed down, the ANC indicated its intent to appeal the decision.

“I think that is the most critical period for state capture. It was really from 2013 onwards that we saw the appointment of utterly unqualified individuals to state institutions. I take you back to the people appointed at Eskom, Dudu Myeni at SAA, Hlaudi Motsoeneng at the SABC, a range of examples like these – and yet we still don’t quite know what the justification and the process was that lead to these obviously unsuitable individuals being appointed,” explain DA MP, Leon Scherieber.

The ANC is desperate to hide information on cadre deployment: DA

The DA says it believes that key positions at state-owned enterprises and government departments should be given to competent individuals.

“The thing with the electoral system is that at the very least you have the ability to vote someone out who cannot do their job but what we are talking about is there is no mechanism for voters to remove, for example, the head of a particular government department or someone who is running SAA into the ground. Those are all appointments that should be made in terms of the law and should be based on competence and the ability to do the job. Essentially, if you want to know why this cadre deployment issue is such a big one, every single time the lights go out due to loadshedding, you are living with the consequences of cadre deployment,” says Scherieber.

Video: DA vs ANC court battle over cadre deployment