By Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa says he will not resign over the Phala Phala farm scandal and will instead challenge the Section 89 independent panel report through a court review process.
Addressing the nation on Monday night, Ramaphosa said resigning would amount to abandoning his constitutional responsibilities and surrendering to what he called “forces against renewal”.
“I therefore respectfully want to make it clear that I will not resign. To do so would be to pre-empt a process defined by the Constitution. To do so would be to give credence to a panel report that unfortunately has grave flaws,” Tamaphosa told the nation.
“To do so would be to abdicate the responsibility that I assumed when I became President of the Republic. To resign now would be to give in to those who seek to reverse the renewal of our society, the rebuilding of our institutions and the prosecution of corruption,” Ramaphosa added.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa has ruled that Parliament’s decision not to establish a committee to consider the Section 89 independent panel’s findings was unconstitutional.
The panel had found that Ramaphosa had a prima facie case to answer in relation to allegations surrounding foreign currency allegedly stolen from a couch at his Phala Phala farm in 2020, near Bela-Bela, Limpopo.
Ramaphosa maintains that while he withdrew his 2022 application to review the panel’s report, he still retains the legal right to reopen the matter through the courts.
“On the basis of advice from my legal team and as envisaged by the Constitutional Court when it said ‘unless and until the report is set aside on review’, I have therefore decided to proceed to take the independent panel’s report on review on an expeditious basis,” he said.
The president said he had no choice but to seek a review because he believed the report was flawed.
“I do so not out of disrespect for Parliament or its processes, but to affirm the need for such findings to be correct in law and in fact, especially where Parliament’s work would be based on and informed by a report I believe is flawed,” he said.
Ramaphosa maintained that the Constitutional Court ruling did not compel him to resign and made no findings on the merits of the allegations against him.
“While there have been calls in some circles that I should resign, nothing in the Constitutional Court judgment compels me to resign my office. The Constitutional Court made no finding of any kind regarding my alleged conduct,” he said.
He reaffirmed his commitment to the Constitution, judicial independence and the rule of law.
“I reiterate my firm commitment to the Constitution, the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. Guided by the rule of law and the principle of accountability, I intend to fulfil and complete the mandate that you, the people, have given me,” Ramaphosa said.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said it noted Ramaphosa’s decision to seek a review and welcomed his reaffirmation of the judiciary’s constitutional role.
COSATU parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks said Parliament should be allowed to carry out its constitutional responsibilities and warned against political grandstanding ahead of local government elections.
“It is equally sacrosanct that President Ramaphosa be afforded his constitutionally guaranteed rights to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, or in the event of an impeachment, by Parliament. Social media hysteria has no legal standing,” Parks said.
The address comes amid mounting pressure from opposition parties calling for Ramaphosa’s resignation, while the ANC prepares for an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Cape Town on Tuesday night.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula called the meeting as the party moves to contain the political fallout from last week’s Constitutional Court ruling on the Phala Phala matter.
The emergency meeting is expected to take place in Cape Town on Tuesday night amid mounting pressure on the ANC after the apex court revived the stalled impeachment process against Ramaphosa.
Following Ramaphosa’s address, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said that while the president had the legal right to seek a review of the Section 89 panel report, he could not use the move to delay Parliament’s accountability processes.
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said Ramaphosa should bring the review application “with due haste and on an expedited basis” to avoid unnecessary delays, while Parliament should urgently obtain legal advice on whether the impeachment committee can continue its work during the review process.
The DA called for transparency, saying Parliament should publicly release that legal advice given the “serious constitutional consequences” and public interest surrounding the matter.
“This remains an ANC-made crisis, rooted in serious unanswered questions about the President’s conduct and the ANC’s long record of shielding its own leaders from accountability,” Hill-Lewis said.
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