LETTER: Cadre records will tell us much about state capture

The ANC has reached the end of the road in its attempt to withhold the records of its cadre deployment committee from the DA (“ANC says it will hand over cadre deployment records that exist to DA”, February 19).

The ruling is one of the great victories in SA legal and democratic history. It will ensure transparency by forcing the governing party to reveal exactly how Cyril Ramaphosa’s cadre deployment committee laid the foundation for state capture by interfering in public appointment processes.

It also sets a powerful new precedent that empowers all South Africans to use the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to force the ANC to reveal how it interferes in appointments. The records are set to reveal, once and for all, that Ramaphosa was personally involved in the state capture project in his capacity as cadre deployer in chief.

The Zondo state capture commission has already confirmed that the ANC deployment committee was a key cog in the machine that corrupted and collapsed the public sector, because it was this committee that illegally intervened to ensure the appointment of the people who captured the state.

The DA’s court victory is based on the premise — now vindicated by the courts — that the deployment committee does not merely make “recommendations” but actively influences public sector appointments in an unlawful manner.

Thulani Dasa 
Khayelitsha

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