By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The independent panel set to probe impeachment allegations against President Cyril Ramaphosa will officially start its work on Wednesday.
Parliament has announced that the three-member panel will have 30 days to investigate the complaints lodged by the African Transformation Movement (ATM).
On Monday night, Parliament announced that an independent panel tasked with probing the allegations would start its work on Wednesday.
“The 30-day timeline within which the panel must report in terms of Rule 129G(1), starts from 19 October 2022,” a report on Parliament’s announcements, tablings and committee reports read.
Led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, the panel comprising Judge Thokozile Masipa and Advocate Mahlape Sello, will consider four charges levelled against Ramaphosa.
The first that he has violated the Constitution by continuing with his farming business, after declaring in 2014 that his business interests would be managed by a blind trust.
The second charge relates to his failure to report the burglary on his Phala Phala farm at a police station, instead informing the head of his VIP protection unit, Major-General Wally Rhoode, while they were on official business in Ethiopia.
The third and fourth charges relate to the president having misconducted himself, mixing his personal interests with his official position by allegedly directing Rhoode to investigate the crime and security on his Limpopo farm.
Ramaphosa, who is an avid and well-known game collector and breeder of Africa’s exotic wildlife, is facing mounting pressure to open up about an alleged cover-up of a robbery that occurred on his private Phala Phala wildlife farm in 2020.
In June, former State Security Agency boss – and well-known supporter of former President Jacob Zuma – Arthur Fraser dropped a bombshell when he filed criminal charges against Ramaphosa.
According to Fraser’s 48-page affidavit, a domestic worker in the president’s employ on his farm had discovered an undisclosed sum of US dollars concealed in the furniture on the Phala Phala premises.