Records show Duarte told Lamola to address 'influential role of chief justice'

The ANC’s cadre deployment committee was so unhappy that its preferred candidate judge for a position on the Constitutional Court was snubbed after being shortlisted by the judicial service committee (JSC) that it sent an e-mail to justice minister Ronald Lamola asking him to “immediately address this”.

In the e-mail from the late former ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, the convener of the cadre deployment committee, she tells justice minister Ronald Lamola that the process to snub Ramola Naidoo, the ANC’s preferred candidate, was inconsistent with the law and showed lack of transparency as there was no explanation provided to her.

This, she said, was because though Naidoo had less judicial experience, she was highly qualified and that the section 174(5) broadens the scope “to include candidates with no judicial experience”.

Duarte’s e-mail is in stark contrast to the remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the state capture commission that the deployment committee does not appoint judges.

“The deployment committee knows that, at best, all it can ever do is note that, one, there is a vacancy; two, that there are certain names that could be proposed and, having done that, it also knows very well it is not the appointing structure,” Ramaphosa told the state capture commission. 

“And by definition, by the way our constitution works, it could never ever have a judge appointed because that is a process that is done through the JSC and what comes out of the JSC is the will of those people who sit on the JSC.”

Duarte's e-mail read:  “It has been brought to our attention that Adv Ramola Naidoo, a highly qualified female applicant for the Constitutional Court who was shortlisted according to attached document for the position by the JSC ... was subsequently removed despite being more qualified and experienced than most if not all the other listed candidates.

“She was the one removed from the list. The list was published on February 13 2020 and no communication has been made with Adv Naidoo. The process is inconsistent with section 174(5) which broadens the scope to include candidates with judicial experience.” 

It is unclear how Duarte would have been aware that no explanation was given to Naidoo at that stage.

The DA has alleged this is proof the ANC was in constant communication with Naidoo and that she was the deployment committee’s preferred candidate.

Duarte further called for clarity to be given on the influential role of the chief justice and the legal profession are addressed.

“We are requesting that the issues with regard to lack of transparency be addressed as well as the influential role of the chief justice, legal profession. Please attend to this matter ASAP,” wrote Duarte.

It is unclear why the ANC felt the chief justice, who was Mogoeng Mogoeng at the time, was too influential.

The DA’s Leon Schreiber believes the e-mail proves that the ANC felt the judiciary had become more powerful than the ANC.

“The ANC documents that are now in the DA’s possession after our victory in the Constitutional Court reveal the ANC’s national cadre deployment committee to be the biggest racketeering syndicate in our country’s democratic history,” said Schreiber.

The deployment committee records show that the ANC had its hand and a say in every appointment at every institution, including the judiciary, he said.

“No institution is spared from interference, including the judiciary and the highest court in the land. The 2019 minutes, as well as the 2020 letter from Duarte, show how the ANC directly interfered with the work of the JSC to favour 'loyal cadres' for appointment — all the way up to the Constitutional Court itself.

"These documents reveal that the ANC repeatedly used the cadre deployment committee to attack the independence of the JSC, the judiciary, and even the Constitutional Court.”

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