The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC) will face off in Pretoria’s High Court this week over the ANC’s “controversial” cadre deployment policy.
According to DA Shadow Minister for Public Service Leon Schreiber, the DA wants that the policy be deemed unconstitutional and unlawful.
“We hope to use this court case to finally abolish this practice once and for all so that South Africa can start the hard and arduous journey of rebuilding our state capacity of appointing people solely based on merit and skill,” says Leon Schreiber.
The party would contend that cadre deployment was no better proven than the reason of the energy crisis.
It is acknowledged that the policy blurs the line between party and state. It was executed as if it were official policy, yet it favoured politically linked candidates.
“Being a court of law, we are very much focused on what the Constitution outlines in terms of the separation between party and state,” says Leon Schreiber, the DA Shadow Minister for Public Service
THE COURT CASE
- Monday’s court proceedings centred mostly on the validity of the regulation.
- The Constitution specifies that no person appointed to the public service may be favoured or otherwise discriminated against on the basis of political loyalty.
- The objective of the DA is to demonstrate that the ANC has violated the Constitution. Using minutes acquired from the National Deployment Committee of the ANC. According to the DA, this demonstrates “numerous” instances of the ANC hiring someone on the basis of party loyalty.
Even if ministers were not forced into making favoured nominations, the DA would claim that the policy is unlawful.