As the DA prepares to publish records of meetings of the ANC’s cadre deployment committee, one of its former members Bongani Baloyi has called out the party for hypocrisy saying it also deployed its members to key strategic positions where it governed.
Baloyi who served as a DA Mayor in Midvaal for eight years said he and other mayors were never allowed to appoint anyone to a strategic position without the approval of the Democratic Alliance Executive otherwise known as FEDEX which he said continues to decide who fills which posts in municipalities and in the Western Cape provincial government where the DA governs.
Baloyi challenged the official opposition to publish minutes of meetings of FEDEX to prove him wrong, a challenge so far ignored by the DA.
“It is true that the Democratic Alliance practices cadre deployment. When I was Mayor of Midvaal between 2013-2021, the municipality couldn’t conclude a senior staff appointment without the APPROVAL of FEDEX,” he said.
Baloyi said the DA’s cadre deployment is practiced without exception and continues to this day.
“It was standard procedure that all Mayors apply to get the approval of FEDEX before the Municipality would conclude the appointment. This practice hasn’t changed,” he said.
“The DA releases for public and media review all cadre deployment corruption documents provided so far by the ANC in accordance with a constitutional court ruling,” said the DA on X.
Baloyi challenged the DA to publish its own records as well.
“If they have nothing to hide, they must release minutes of FEDEX and you will see that they practiced the same Cadre deployment that the ANC practiced,” said Baloyi.
Perceptions of the DA’s supposedly clean governance has come under increased scrutiny as pockets of malpractice in areas where the party is governing are exposed.
Upon quitting as Joburg Mayor and leaving the DA, Herman Mashaba who now leads Action SA called out the senior party leaders such as Tony Leon of pressuring him into awarding tenders to them. At the time of his departure Mashaba was facing a motion of no confidence brought forward by the ANC which the DA already admitted publicly it was going to support as it believed Black Like Me founder was serving the interests of then coalition partner Economic Freedom Fighters with Federal Chairperson describing him as an “ EFF Mayor”.
“I have worked well with our coalition partners EFF. I can tell you now that the EFF leadership is always coming up with ideas and not once have they ever come to my house to demand a tender or anything like that, it’s the DA leaders who were doing that,” said Mashaba in a widely publicized interview.
While the DA uses an existing structure with authority for deployments, the ANC set up deployment committees at various levels chaired by, deputy president at the national level, deputy provincial chairperson in provinces and deputy regional chairpersons in regional structures. Deployment committees decide who should hold strategic positions in public institutions in order to implement the wishes of a governing party and is practiced globally by political parties even in instances of coalition arrangements.