Minister of Public Service and Administration Noxolo Kiviet has hit back at the Democratic Alliance (DA) over cadre deployment.

The National Freedom Party (NFP) also said the DA and other parties practise cadre deployment where they govern.

The debate over cadre deployment has intensified since President Cyril Ramaphosa at the weekend called for the DA to release its cadre deployment records.

This was after the ANC handed over its records of cadre deployment to the DA last week following the judgment of the Constitutional Court for the ruling party to do so.

But DA leader John Steenhuisen said not all records were handed over by the ANC to his party.

He said the minutes of meetings when Ramaphosa was chairing the deployment committee of the ANC were not included.

The debate continued in Parliament on Tuesday during approval of the Public Service Amendment Bill.

The Bill calls for political office bearers not to hold senior positions in government.

DA MP and party spokesperson on public service administration Leon Schreiber said the ANC has copied the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill by inserting its provisions in the Public Service Amendment Bill.

Parliament rejected the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill last year.

“The DA not only supports the Public Service Amendment Bill for copying directly from our End Cadre Deployment Bill, but we recognise honest officials who have begun to openly defy ANC dogma on cadre deployment.

“But the adoption today, right under the ANC’s noses, of the first elements of the DA’s policy to rescue South Africa from cadre deployment, could mark the beginning of the end for the cadres,” said Schreiber.

However, Kiviet denied that the ANC copied the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill when they drafted the Public Service Amendment Bill.

“Let me remind honourable Schreiber that his 2021 bill is almost three years after the ANC and the Department of Public Service and Administration initiated the Bills that we are debating today. It is dangerous for one to cut his nose to spite his own face,” said Kiviet.

NFP MP Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam said it was not only the ANC that practises cadre deployment.

He said the DA and other parties practise cadre deployment where they govern.

siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za

Politics