Ramaphosa NCOP Q&A postponed to sift through Phala Phala report

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s planned appearance before the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will no longer be taking place.

A statement issued by Parliament on Wednesday confirmed Ramaphosa’s presence in the hybrid plenary sitting to provide oral replies to questions from Members of the House.

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Phala Phala report

The question-and-answer session was meant to deal with questions relating to the extension of the social relief of distress grant, the rising cost of living, the negative impact of load shedding on service delivery, filling vacant key technical positions in municipalities and the infiltration of police in the Western Cape.

The statement, however, was issued before the Section 89 panel report into the burglary at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm in February 2020 dropped.

The panel, headed by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, was tasked with investigating whether the president committed an impeachable offence related to the burglary.

A special sitting of the National Assembly will take place on 6 December to deal with the report.

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Political career ‘in crisis’

Ramaphosa needed time to “carefully consider the contents of the report and the next course of action to be taken,” parliamentary counsellor to the president, Gerhard Koornhof, said.

“The Section 89 Independent Panel process has been unprecedented in the life of our constitutional democracy,” Koornhof said.

NCOP chairperson Amos Masondo confirmed Ramaphosa’s postponement, and “acceded to the request”.

A new date would be determined “in due course”, parliament pokesperson Moloto Mothapo said.

The report finding placed Ramaphosa’s political career and future into an immediate crisis, political analyst Ralph Mathekga told The Citizen. 

“Even those who were supporting him would have to reconsider their positions. This is all happening in his first term and he wants a second term which would be more disastrous than what we have already seen,” he said.

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Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by Lunga Simelane and Thapelo Lekabe.