Ramaphosa stands by deployment

• Abuse of policy ‘does not make it unconstitutional’

That a policy may be abused is not enough to have it declared invalid and unconstitutional, President Cyril Ramaphosa argued through his legal representative in the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Adila Hassim said the ANC’s cadre deployment policy is not government policy, and it is for the governing party to decide what it should do with its own internal policies.

The DA applied to the high court for an order declaring the cadre deployment policy unconstitutional.

The ANC has employed the policy to help fast-track transformation and assist with a quicker turnaround in implementing its policies in the public service, but the policy has been blamed for a slew of service problems, corruption, malfeasance and fraud. In the final part of the state capture commission report released in June 2022, then commission chair and now chief justice Raymond Zondo declared the policy unconstitutional and illegal.

This was after it came under much criticism at the commission, with evidence leaders suggesting it is a foundation for corruption and inefficiency in the government and stateowned enterprises.

During the second day of argument on Tuesday, Hassim said that the DA has not made a case that the policy infringes on the right to equality. That a policy may be abused “is not cause for a declaration of invalidity. When a law is abused, it doesn’t follow that the law is unconstitutional. It’s the case of the abuse that must be addressed.”

“I must submit ... there is no valid ... case that is made at this point ... We submit the DA’s application should be dismissed, including the cost of two counsel,” said Hassim.

In his reply, the DA’s legal representative, advocate Anton Katz, sought to explain what the DA’s application was about.

The ANC argued that the official opposition party was struggling to clarify the central point of its argument.

“What this case is actually about: the DA has come to court to say one thing and one thing only [that] this policy is unconstitutional. We submit firmly that this policy undermines the notion of a multiparty government.”

ANC legal representative Les Morison said on Monday the DA argues the policy is “unconstitutional for the mere fact that it exists”. Katz said the six hours of argument by the ANC’s legal counsel and “all these debates [are] fascinating but [they are] irrelevant on the DA’s case”. The policy undermines the constitution, Katz said. Through it the ANC wants to “take hold of the entire public service”.

Gauteng deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba asked Katz whether the DA would still pursue the application if the ANC were a minority party.

“Absolutely,” Katz responded. “The entire policy is infused with the motion of moving towards a one-party state.

“This entire policy undermines what we are here about today: the constitution.”

ANC head of legal Krish Naidoo said that if the DA application succeeds “the ANC deployment policy would no longer be capable of being enforced and the ANC deployment committee would have to be disbanded”.

Another consequence “is that appointments made in the three years preceding the grant of the declaratory order [and] which are a direct consequence of the dictates of the deployment committee stand to be nullified”.

But Katz said the DA does not want to cause “chaos”. The court could make the order prospective, not retrospective. “We are here to stop [cadre deployment] happening in future,” he said.

Judgment was reserved.

DEPLOYMENT POLICY WOULD NO LONGER BE CAPABLE OF BEING ENFORCED AND THE … COMMITTEE WOULD HAVE TO BE DISBANDED