Honourable Speaker,

As has become routine, the former chairman of the ANC cadre deployment committee offered us a series of platitudes about building a capable state at the State of the Nation Address.

And, also as usual, he entirely avoided the most important cause of the collapse of the South African state, namely the corrupt ANC cadre deployment committee that he led during the height of the Zuma administration.

Over the past four years, the DA has run a laser-focused campaign against cadre deployment corruption. We have warned the President, time and time again, that we would not rest until cadre deployment is abolished.

By giving the ANC unconstitutional powers to interfere in appointment processes, this system leads directly to the appointment of incompetent and corrupt individuals in government departments and state-owned enterprises.

Behind the collapse of every public service – from load-shedding to policing to railways – you will find an ANC cadre who should never have been appointed in the first place. But our warnings fell on deaf ears.

The more the DA intensified our campaign against cadre deployment, the more vigorously President Ramaphosa and others in the ANC defended it. And then he has the temerity to stand on this stage and talk about building a capable state. Don’t you get it, Mr President? Not one person in this country believes that you are serious about fighting corruption when you never miss a chance to defend the cause of corruption: ANC cadre deployment. But while the ANC clearly won’t listen to reason, the rest of South Africa has taken note of the DA’s work to expose and combat this evil system.

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