Parliament to finally consider the Phala Phala report

The national Parliament will on Tuesday decide whether President Cyril Ramaphosa should be grilled by an impeachment parliamentary committee following allegations of wrongdoing amid the Phala Phala robbery saga.

Parliament, which will debate the Phala Phala matter at its special sitting on Tuesday, resolved to deliberate on the scandal after a Section 89 Independent Panel found that Ramaphosa may have an impeachable case to answer in relation to the robbery, which took place at his farm in Limpopo in 2020.

The panel’s findings
Led by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, the panel found that Ramaphosa, who may have violated the Constitution, may have attempted to conceal the theft of more than $500 000 which were concealed in a sofa in his farmhouse.

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For the impeachment process to be taken to the next level, 50%+1 of Parliament’s 400 MPs should vote in favour of the panel’s report in next week’s special sitting. Most of the opposition parties MPs — including those from the DA, EFF, IFP and UDM — are expected to vote in favour of the panel’s report.

However, given that the ANC has the majority in Parliament, the opposition needs the support of some ruling party MPs to be able to achieve the 50%+1 threshold.

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Attempts by the opposition to get ANC MPs to vote in favour of the panel report — which some ruling party leaders have slammed as “flawed” — are being made difficult by the fact that the ANC national executive committee (NEC) has already ordered the party’s MPs to reject the report.

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The ANC NEC resolved to instruct all the party’s MPs to vote against the report despite the fact that the Zondo Commission which investigated state capture and corruption, found that the practice by political parties to instruct their representatives on how to vote on parliamentary matters, weakened the institution’s ability to hold the executive to account.

While Ramaphosa, who insists that he has done nothing wrong, has since taken the panel report on review, the court process does not prevent Parliament from adopting the report.
What might happen should Parliament adopt the panel’s report
Should Parliament in its special sitting on Tuesday adopt the panel’s report, an ad hoc committee to investigate Ramaphosa would be established.

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The ad hoc committee, which will be similar to the one currently investigating whether Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane is fit to hold her current position, would submit its findings to Parliament.

In the event of the ad hoc committee resolving that Ramaphosa should be removed from office, two thirds of Parliament’s MPs should endorse the ad hoc committee’s decision in order for him to be removed.

While political analysts believe that the panel’s report has weakened Ramaphosa in the ANC, he would still be able to contest the party presidency at the upcoming national elective conference, irrespective of the outcome of Tuesday’s Parliamentary debate.

The ANC’s five-day elective conference, which is scheduled to kick off at Johannesburg’s Nasrec Expo on Friday, will see Ramaphosa slug it out with former health minister, Zweli Mkhize, who will also be contesting the ANC president position.