EFF CIC Julius Malema briefs media at Winnie Mandela house in Johannesburg, 5 December 2022. . Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema believes opposition parties represented in Parliament will vote overwhelmingly for President Cyril Ramaphosa to face impeachment over the Phala Phala saga.
Malema, speaking at a media briefing on Monday in Johannesburg, said he was more concerned about the Democratic Alliance‘s (DA) support for the parliamentary impeachment process.
This follows the last week’s release of the independent panel of experts’ report that was established to determine whether Ramaphosa has a case to answer over the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo over two years ago.
The three-member Section 89 panel, headed by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, made damning findings against the president after concluding that he may have violated the country’s anti-corruption laws and the Constitution over his Phala Phala dealings.
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While Ramaphosa has indicated that he would take the panel’s report on judicial review to the Constitutional Court, the National Assembly on Tuesday is expected to debate and vote on whether to adopt its findings, which could lead to the president facing an impeachment inquiry.
A two-thirds majority will be required for the process to go ahead.
Malema said the EFF was happy that National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula rejected a request from the African Transformation Movement (ATM) for voting to be carried out by way of a secret ballot.
He said if members of Parliament (MPs) from the governing ANC voted against the impeachment process, they would be “showing the Constitution the middle finger”.
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The EFF leader said MPs should vote according to their conscience and claimed that Ramaphosa will be shocked by the outcome of the votes on Tuesday.
“The ANC tomorrow must vote against the panel so that South Africans can see who they are. They’re a bunch of corrupt people who’ve got no regard for the laws of South Africa,” said Malema.
“The numbers look good from where we are sitting, we’ve got no doubt… all of the opposition is consolidated [and] the report will be adopted tomorrow.”
Malema confirmed that opposition parties, including the DA, will be meeting on Tuesday morning in Cape Town ahead of the proceedings in the National Assembly.
Malema said he was less concerned about ANC MPs following the party line on the voting process in the House. He said if Ramaphosa doesn’t step down on Tuesday, some of the governing party’s parliamentarians would vote with the opposition.
Malema said his main concern was for the DA’s votes and its leader John Steenhuisen, whom he accused of creating “a lot of uneasiness” in public on whether the party supports the impeachment inquiry being instituted.
The DA has submitted its motion to the National Assembly for early elections in terms of sections 49 and 50 of the Constitution.
Malema said: “Our worry is not the ANC, our worry is the DA… they’re highly conflicted because the poster-boy of their handlers has been found wanting”.
Even if the DA does not vote in favour of the parliamentary impeachment process, Malema said opposition parties still had the numbers to push for the inquiry.
He challenged the DA to table a motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa as the official opposition party or the EFF would do so themselves.
Malema said Ramaphosa should resign and face an impeachment inquiry.
He said the EFF will defend the Section 89 panel’s findings after some of the president’s backers and pundits described its report as flawed and lacking in facts and law.
According to the EFF, Justice Ngcobo produced a “comprehensive and concise report” within a relatively understandable period of time.
Malema claimed there was a coordinated campaign by the media aimed at discrediting the report and casting aspersions on the integrity of the panel’s members.
Malema added Ramaphosa’s challenge of the panel’s report in the apex court was in essence the president taking Parliament to court because the Section 89 panel had concluded its work by determining whether he has a case to answer over the Phala Phala scandal.
“Ramaphosa is taking Parliament to court. The president of the Republic of South Africa is taking Parliament to court,” he said.
If Ramaphosa stays in office and doesn’t step down, Malema claimed he would be a lame-duck president due to his detractors in the ANC baying for his blood.
The ANC’s national executive committee – the party’s highest decision-making body – was meeting in the south of Johannesburg on Monday, to deliberate on its response to the panel’s report ahead of Tuesday’s processes in the National Assembly.
The party remains divided on whether Ramaphosa should resign over the scandal, with some of his Cabinet ministers – including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu – calling for him to step down just days before the ANC elects new leaders at its 55th national congress at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec.
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