High court dismisses DA case on cadre deployment

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has suffered a knock after the Pretoria high court on Wednesday rejected, with costs, its application to have the ANC’s cadre deployment policy declared unconstitutional.

This comes after the DA scored a victory in the constitutional court in a protracted case in which it wanted the ANC to produce its minutes on cadre deployments dating back to 2013. 

The ANC released its records on Monday following the constitutional court judgment. 

Speaking to the media shortly after Wednesday’s judgment, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the party would appeal the matter all the way to the constitutional court. 

“Our legal team is busy as we speak, digesting the judgment. But we will appeal it to the SCA [supreme court of appeal] and potentially directly to the constitutional court. We believe there can be no greater constitutional imperative than to deal with this particular matter and its effect on South Africa.” 

Steenhuisen said if cadre deployment was supported in its current form, it would continue to undermine the state and cause great harm to South Africans and their prospects for the future.

He said that the “silver bullet” to end cadre deployment was the national elections, which President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday night would take place on 29 May.

Steenhuisen said the DA had made a commitment to end cadre deployment by tabling a bill in parliament should it emerge victorious in the elections. 

“We may not have made over this first hurdle but I can assure you, like elite athletes, we will get up and we will get back onto that track off to the SCA, off to the constitutional court and I committed to all South Africans that we will never, ever, ever stop fighting until this scourge of cadre deployment ends,” he said. 

DA MP Leon Schreiber said the battle to rid the country of the effects of cadre deployment dated back to the 2012 Mangaung elective conference of the ANC. 

He added that the battle was not against cadre deployment but was rather a war against corruption.

“The DA is going to emerge as the victor on this front because we are going to defeat the scourge,” he said.