By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Assembly Programming Committee has agreed to move a debate on an impeachment vote against President Cyril Ramaphosa to next week Tuesday.
“We all agree to the 13th (of December),” Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula said during a late-night urgent meeting of the parliament’s programming committee.
The postponement was unanimously agreed to allow time for lawmakers to travel to Cape Town to physically sit and vote manually.
Parliament had been set on Tuesday to debate a damning report by an independent panel probing allegations that Ramaphosa concealed a huge cash theft at his farm.
The three investigators questioned the source of the cash and said Ramaphosa “may have committed” serious violations and misconduct.
The delayed debate is a step that could lead to a vote on whether to impeach Ramaphosa.
To initiate an impeachment vote would require a simple majority in the National Assembly, where the ANC has 230 out of 400 seats. The impeachment vote itself would need a two-thirds majority to succeed.
Ramaphosa, on Monday filed a petition to the Constitutional Court seeking to have the investigative report “reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside”, according to papers made available to the media by his spokesman.
Ramaphosa also asked for any possible impeachment process to be blocked, saying “any steps taken by the National Assembly pursuant to the report are equally unlawful and invalid”.
EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu said the matter should be convened at an in-person meeting, rather than a virtual one – so that all members are “under the protection of Parliament”, unlike what transpired at a motion of no confidence earlier this year when all ANC MPs were “frogmarched” into a hotel conference room.
He said MPs represent the people and that Parliament has an obligation to create “safe spaces” for their voting.
“It is not safe to convene this forum – the meeting tomorrow – on the virtual platform,” he said.
ANC deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude took exception to Shivambu’s assertion that they “frogmarched” MPs into one room to control how they voted.
She said many of their members did not live in cities and had connectivity issues. They accommodated everyone in Cape Town to prevent a situation in which they would not have been able to vote.
However, she supported the postponement and proposed that the meeting be held next Tuesday.
The other parties agreed that it should be moved and that the National Assembly should convene physically.
Tuesday’s plenary will continue as planned.
However, at next Tuesday’s plenary meeting, the impeachment vote will be the only item on the order paper.