President Cyril Ramaphosa. File picture
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa and other executive leaders of the ANC could face a contempt of court application if they do not provide the DA with cadre deployment documents that are available.
On Monday, the ANC lost its application for leave to appeal in the Constitutional Court.
The ANC went to the apex court after the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein turned down its application for leave to appeal a Gauteng High Court judgment which ordered it to hand over the cadre deployment records, dating back to 2013.
The governing party must hand over the documents within five days. The documents include meeting minutes, CVs, e-mail threads, WhatsApp discussions and other relevant documents relating to the cadre deployment committee.
The DA approached the courts as it accused the ANC of running the country into the ground because of its cadre deployment policy, which puts people in top positions based on their loyalty to the party rather than on merit or skills.
Ramaphosa was the ANC deputy president after he was elected at the party’s conference in December 2012 in Mangaung. He chaired the deployment committee until he became president of the party in December 2017. Former deputy president David Mabuza chaired the committee from 2018 to 2020.
Experts said the apex court has refused to grant the ANC further legal appeals and the party had to hand over the documents or provide a good reason or justification for them not being submitted.
Legal expert Mpumelelo Zikalala of Zikalala Attorneys said executives of the governing party, including Ramaphosa, could face a contempt order if the available documents are not handed over.
“A contempt order entails jail time or a fine, it all depends on what the court determines. It depends on whether a person says the documents have been destroyed, no longer exist or discussions were not recorded, but whatever is available must be handed over.
“It also depends if the document is in his (Ramaphosa’s) possession, or it could be held by Gwede Mantashe (ANC national chairperson),” Zikalala said.
Another legal expert, Benedict Phiri, said the ANC did not have any further room to manoeuvre in the case as the Constitutional Court order meant that the records must be made available.
Phiri said if the records were not submitted within five days as ordered by the court then there was potential for a contempt of court application.
“There might be a reason as to why they are not submitted within five days, but assuming that there is no good reason or justification for them not to be submitted within the time period, then certainly there would be grounds for a contempt of court application.”
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe told Parliament on Tuesday that they will hand over cadre deployment records as ordered by the ConCourt.
He said they had no issue with the court’s decision and request to hand over the records to the DA, but this policy must be understood in the context of transformation in the country.
“It has changed a situation where every DG (director-general) was a white male in 1994. It has changed the reality where every judge was a white male, where every mayor was a white male. Cadre development has changed that reality.
“Run to court, do everything, but the reality of the matter is, we will do it. You will get your report, but we will continue deploying people who are capable,” said Mantashe.
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said, depending on what is contained in the documents, certain information could be damaging to the ANC and Ramaphosa especially with the elections looming.
“The ANC has all the reasons to be concerned and Ramaphosa, who came to power and gave the impression that he would undo the ways of the past, may find his image dented.
“It is unprecedented that an opposition party has taken a governing party to court to get access to that party’s documents,” Mngomezulu said.