SADTU has called for an investigation into the conduct of former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, who chaired the Phala Phala independent panel, and Justice Thokozile Masipa, for making findings based on hearsay evidence.
The teachers’ union said its National Executive Committee also resolved this weekend to lodge a formal complaint against Ngcobo and Masipa.
The panel, in its final report to Parliament, found that there was “prima facie” evidence that President Cyril Ramaphosa had breached the Constitution in relation to his handling of the robbery at his Phala Phala farm.
The panel made a total of four findings against Ramaphosa in its 87-page report and conceded that some of the evidence placed before it was based on hearsay.
SADTU said “a review of the report reveals that it is fundamentally flawed.”
“The Panel and its members made findings based on hearsay evidence in circumstances where the hearsay evidence is wholly inadmissible and the rules applicable thereto not observed,” said Sadtu.
SADTU said as a registered trade union representing over 265 000 members, “it has a direct and substantial interest in the protection of the constitution, the upholding of human rights of all and ensuring full accountability of those who exercise public power.”
SADTU said the NEC holds a strong view that Ngcobo and Masipa misled Parliament and the public that Section 34(1) of the PRECCA was applicable in the matter of the complaint against the President when the section was in fact not applicable.
“As experts in law, the two Judges ought to have known that Section 34(1) does not apply, and that Parliament and the public would rely and act on their opinion,” the union said in a statement.
“The effect of their conduct is that the public will, in error, believe that the President in fact contravened Section 34(1) of the PRECCA when the section did not even apply in the present circumstances.”
INSIDE POLITICS