Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhuisen, has refuted allegations made by a former mayor of Midvaal Bongani Baloyi on the party’s cadre deployment policy. The DA’s nearly ten-year mayor of Midvaal, Baloyi, stated that the party cannot protect itself from the cadre deployment program.
This comes after the Democratic Alliance (DA) prevailed in the Constitutional Court, forcing the African National Congress (ANC) to make the cadre deployment committee’s records available. President Cyril Ramaphosa presided over the committee at the time. It is true, according to Baloyi, that the DA implements this policy in the areas that it controls.
It is accurate to say that the DA uses cadre deployment. Between 2013 and 2021, while I served as Midvaal’s mayor, the municipality needed Fedex’s (the Federal Executive) approval before it could complete the hiring of a senior staff member.
“It was usual protocol for all mayors to apply and receive Fedex permission prior to the municipality finalizing the appointment. This is still how it’s done. Baloyi stated, “If they have nothing to hide, they should release the Fedex minutes so you can see that they replicated the ANC’s cadre deployment exercises.”
However, Steenhuisen refuted Baloyi’s claims on Friday. He characterized him as an irate ex-member who was leveling baseless accusations. According to him, the DA has never meddled in the selection of senior officials in local government or any other organization under its control.
Regarding the claim put up by a former, irate party member. I’ll just put it this way: ever since he made his statement, the party’s mayors Chris Pappas, Athol Trollip, and several others have come out and flatly denied what he has claimed.
“In no municipality to date has the DA meddled or chosen municipal managers or senior municipal managers. Since there were no discussions or considerations, there are no minutes that would document that. According to Steenhuisen, the mayors were just needed to provide a statement outlining the procedure that was followed.
He went on to say that the DA will never participate in the appointment or selection of top municipal officials. When it comes to appointments in local government or any other branch of the government, they adhere to the legal guidelines.
We have never requested the political affiliations of municipal managers or any other senior staff in any municipality we work in, according to Steenhuisen. “This would not only be against the Public Service Act, but also against the principles that we feel have been the foundation of our ability to produce a government that produces clean, accountable governance across all government departments that spend money on people, not politicians,” he said.
He asserted that since the nomination and selection procedures are always conducted in compliance with the law, it is impossible to meddle. They promise not to meddle in any municipality’s or level of government’s operations.
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