Retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo (L) handing over the Section 89 independent panel report to the Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula at Imbizo Centre in Parliament, Cape Town. Picture: GCIS
Parliament’s Section 89 independent panel into the theft of foreign currency at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm on Wednesday morning handed over its report to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
The panel, headed by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, was tasked with investigating whether the president committed an impeachable offence related to the burglary at his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo in February 2020.
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Justice Ngcobo handed the report to Mapisa-Nqakula during a ceremony in Parliament, Cape Town.
“The report consists of three volumes. The first volume is the report itself.
“Volume two and three is the record of the proceedings which contain every single document on which we relied in order to prepare this report,” he said.
Mapisa-Nqakula said MPs would have access to the report on Wednesday evening ahead of a special sitting of the National Assembly on 6 December to deal with the report.
“The report will be communicated to members of Parliament through the next publication of the announcements, tablings and committee reports tonight,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.
READ MORE: Phala Phala report to be debated in Parliament next month
Ngcobo thanked members of the panel – Judge Thokozile Masipa and advocate Mahlape Sello – and the various political parties that contributed to the report.
“There has been a lot of anxiety, understandably so, from the people of South Africa.
“I’d to thank them for their patience and for allowing us the necessary space to do our work without any interruption,” he said.
The former chief justice said the process of putting together the report “taxed the patience” of the panel’s families to the “ultimate minute that human endurance could ever tolerate”.
Ngcobo stressed that the panel’s work was to determine whether Ramaphosa had a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala allegations.
He said their job was not to find the president guilty of anything or call witnesses.
“Our job was to interrogate the information that members of assemble saw fit to present to us. That’s what the rules made by the National Assembly told and required us to do. We could not go beyond that.
“It’s not in my blood to disregard the law. I live by the law and that’s what I have to do.”
The establishment of the three-member panel comes after Mapisa-Nqakula accepted a request by the African Transformation Movement (ATM) for a Section 89 inquiry to be established against Ramaphosa.
The ATM’s motion was based on former spy boss Arthur Fraser’s criminal complaint in June against the president for money laundering, kidnapping and corruption.
Fraser alleged that Ramaphosa was involved in an elaborate cover-up of the crime after criminals – allegedly working in cahoots with his domestic worker – broke into his property and stole millions of US dollars in cash.
He further claimed that the suspects were subsequently kidnapped, interrogated and bribed to keep quiet.
Ramaphosa has confirmed the burglary at his farm and denied any criminality on his part.
If the panel recommends to Parliament that Ramaphosa has a case to answer, their recommendation will be put to a vote in the National Assembly, which reportedly take place next Tuesday.
A Section 89 impeachment committee will then be established to inquire into the president’s fitness for office if a majority is achieved during the vote.
This could ultimately lead to Ramaphosa’s impeachment if that committee also recommends his removal.
A majority of 201 votes will be required during the impeachment vote in the House.
According to a Business Day report, Ramaphosa has blamed the head of his VIP protection unit Maj-Gen Wally Rhoode for the fallout from the theft at his Phala Phala farm.
In his submission to the Section 89 panel, seen by the publication, the president claimed he reported the housebreaking and theft to Rhoode, as he was responsible for ensuring his safety and security.
He said he expected Rhoode to “do all that is necessary and take any other steps required in response to the information I had shared with him”.
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