The Johannesburg High Court has ruled that the ANC and its secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, are in contempt of court for submitting the party’s cadre deployment records that excluded President Cyril Ramaphosa’s e-mail and WhatsApp conversations.
On Wednesday, DA MP and spokesperson of public service and administration, Leon Schreiber, said the court ordered the ANC to, within 15 working days, provide the DA with copies of cadre deployment records during the time Ramaphosa was the ANC cadre deployment committee chairman between 2013 and 2018.
Ramaphosa served as the ANC deputy president from 2012 to 2017. He was also the country’s deputy president from 2014 to 2018.
Guilty of contempt of court
“In a ruling handed down this morning by the Johannesburg High Court, the Democratic Alliance has won a seminal case finding the governing party of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), and its secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, guilty of contempt of court,” Schreiber said.
“The ruling confirms beyond all doubt that the ANC is a lawless criminal syndicate that is prepared to trigger a constitutional crisis to hide the fact that its corrupt cadre deployment committee is the root cause of state capture, corruption, and service delivery failure.
Schreiber said the DA approached the court on an urgent basis on March 4 after the ANC “unlawfully redacted, destroyed, and withheld records of its cadre deployment committee dating back to January 1 2013, when Cyril Ramaphosa became its chairman.
“The court today agreed with the DA that this behaviour by the ANC, in violation of a court order upheld by the Constitutional Court, amounts to ‘wilful’ and ‘male fide’ contempt of court.”
Violation of a court ruling
According to Schreiber, the court consequently declared that the ANC is in violation of a ruling that the Constitutional Court upheld.
He said the court ordered the ANC to pay the DA’s full costs for the application and to, within 15 days, give effect to the original court order by:
- Providing the DA all of the information that has already been disclosed and that is further required to be disclosed in unredacted form so as to ensure all names of persons are legible;
- Providing to the DA all of the information related to the processes and decisions of the ANC cadre deployment committee during the period 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2021, including but not limited to minutes, draft minutes, notes, attendance registers, communications and decisions of the deployment committee, whether prepared by or communicated to staff members of the ANC, members of the committee, chairpersons of the committee, and government officials;
- E-mails, WhatsApps and other social media communications between and among members of the committee and between committee members, committee chairpersons and government officials;
- Providing the DA with copies of all attachments to e-mails, WhatsApp, and other social media communications;
- Making available the following items to a neutral third-party information technology expert agreed to by the DA for the purposes of extracting information required to be disclosed by the court order: the hard drive and laptop of ANC official Thapelo Masilela; the personal e-mail of Masilela; and the laptop of ANC official Lungi Mtshali;
- The ANC is directed to report to the court and to the DA’s attorneys, in writing and under oath, of its compliance with the court order; and
- The ANC is ordered to pay the costs of this application on an attorney and client scale, such as the costs of two counsels.
Schreiber added that, in its ruling, the court specifically “condemned the ANC’s contemptuous failure to disclose communications and records held by Cyril Ramaphosa”.
“The court noted that in particular, [the ANC] was obliged to disclose communication relating to the committee’s work by and involving President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was the chairperson of the committee between 2013 and 2018.”
Schreiber said that as a result of Wednesday’s ruling, the DA calls on Ramaphosa to act in accordance with his position as president of South Africa in order to bring an end “to this escalating constitutional crisis triggered by his party” by abiding by the ruling and handing over to the DA all of his personal e-mails, WhatsApps, and other communications revealing the role he personally played in state capture through his position as ANC cadre deployment chairperson.
Threat of further court action
“Once again, the clock is ticking on the ANC. It has 15 working days — until April 24 2024 — to hand over all complete and unredacted cadre deployment records, including those held by Ramaphosa.
“As we have done throughout our years-long battle to expose and defeat ANC cadre deployment, the DA reserves our rights to pursue further action against the constitutional delinquents masquerading as a governing party,” said Schreiber.
In February, the DA announced that it would file a contempt of court application against the ANC because the party did not include Ramaphosa’s e-mail and WhatsApp conversations in the ANC cadre deployment records that the party submitted on February 19.
Meanwhile, on February 21, the Pretoria High Court dismissed the DA’s application to have the ANC policy of cadre deployment declared unconstitutional.
The DA said at the time that it would file an application for leave to appeal the court order.
