In his capacity as president of the country, Cyril Ramaphosa will oppose the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) court application to have the African National Congress's (ANC's) cadre deployment policy declared unlawful and unconstitutional, despite the Zondo Commission's damning findings against the controversial policy – and taxpayers will have to foot the lawyers' bill.

This week, Ramaphosa, the Government of the Republic South Africa, and the Minister of Public Service and Administration filed notices to oppose the application, following a notice from the ANC.

Thulas Nxesi is acting as the public service and administration minister.

The State Attorney signed the notices that were filed at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. 

The DA lodged the case about two weeks before the final part of the Zondo Commission report was released. In the report, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo concluded that cadre deployment played a significant role in enabling State capture.

Zondo went on to say that the policy was unlawful and unconstitutional.

DA MP Leon Schreiber, who has been spearheading the DA's efforts to abolish cadre deployment, says Ramaphosa's decision to formally defend cadre deployment in court in his capacity as the president of the country, rather than ANC president, "confirms beyond all reasonable doubt that he has no intention of meaningfully eradicating State capture".

Schreiber referred to Zondo's finding that cadre deployment facilitated State capture through "the appointment of pliant individuals to powerful positions in State entities".

"Yet now that the commission has implicated the ANC cadre deployment committee that he chaired during the Zuma years, Ramaphosa, his party and his entire government are clearly hell-bent on defying the Zondo report in order to protect ANC cadre deployment – the very foundation of State capture," Schreiber said.

According to Schreiber, the opposition to the case from Ramaphosa and his government also amounts to an abuse of public resources to protect the ANC.

"At the very least, a president who was sensitive to the damage wrought by cadre corruption would have indicated that he would simply abide by the court's decision," Schreiber said.

"Instead, Ramaphosa and the South African government have chosen to actively abuse State resources in order to protect a corrupt policy of a political party. 

"In the notice of his intention to oppose the DA's case, Ramaphosa even indicated that he will be represented in the matter by the State Attorney of the Republic of South Africa. He has thus instructed the State Attorney – which is supposed to serve the needs of citizens rather than political parties – to spend millions of rands in court to defend the ANC," he said.