PHUTI MOSOMANE
RETIRED Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, who chaired the Section 89 panel into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s management of the Phala Phala farm saga, says it was never their job to invite or seek information from the Hawks or anyone outside of the scope given by the National Assembly.
Ngcobo was reacting to questions about their fitness to investigate the matter.
He said it was not the panel’s duty to call the Hawks for any information or assistance.
“Someone went on television and said if this panel does not call the Hawks, it would not have done its job. Let me make this quite clear and firmly. That is not our job.”
“Our job was to interrogate the information that members of the Nation Assembly saw fit to present to us, we could not go beyond that,” Ngcobo told a media briefing on Wednesday during the handover of the panel report.
The long-awaited report has to prove sufficient evidence of misconduct in order for an impeachment process of President Cyril Ramaphosa can go ahead.
But Ngcobo said such a decision must be based on solid grounds.
“Dragging the President before an impeachment process is a huge decision. It cannot be done on flimsy grounds. There has to be something tangible that you can hold on to before making that decision,” Ngcobo said.
The Chief Justice said the ATM, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) provided information to the panel, which was then shared with Ramaphosa for responses.
Following the submission by Ngcobo, the next steps is for the report to be made public, according to the National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
The report consists of three volumes with the first being the report itself and the latter being a record of proceedings
“The report will be communicated to members of Parliament through the next publication of the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC), tonight,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
“We have set aside 6 December 2022 for consideration of the Report by the National Assembly. The role of the National Assembly pertaining to this report is articulated in the Rules. The House will consider the report, its findings and recommendations and adopt a resolution, through a simple majority vote, whether a further action by the House is necessary or not.”
In June 2022, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly a motion requesting the House to initiate an enquiry into the removal of the President of the Republic, on specific charges.
Political analyst, Ongama Mtimka, said Ramaphosa must not attempt “to lead at all costs”.
He said, if adversely implicated, Ramaphosa must have the courage to ask another person to continue the work he started in order to avoid serving as a compromised President.
Meanwhile, political parties welcomed the report, and some said they were satisfied with the process, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) still asking for an ad hoc committee to deal with the Phala Phala matter.
“I think comments by the retired Chief Justice were very instructive. He said clearly this was very narrow and was only confined to what was on the papers. That’s exactly why we wanted an ad hoc committee from the beginning because it would be far more broadly. We could have summoned the president or subpoenaed any document,” said DA Leader John Steenhuisen.
UDM Leader Bantu Holomisa said: “The United Democratic Party is happy that the report has been released in public, and that there is confirmation that the content of the report will be online this evening- this is what we called for when they asked for an extension.”
The report is expected to be on Parliament’s website by midnight on Wednesday.
INSIDE POLITICS|
