By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Speaker of the National Assembly Thoko Didiza has announced the names of the members who will serve on the National Assembly’s impeachment committee.
Didiza recently announced the establishment of a 31-member committee following a Constitutional Court ruling that found Parliament’s previous handling of the impeachment process was unlawful and required the matter to be reconsidered under proper procedure.
The committee will determine whether there are sufficient grounds for an inquiry into alleged violations linked to the Phala Phala farm scandal, which relates to the theft of foreign currency from president Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in 2020 and subsequent questions over how the matter was handled. The President has denied wrongdoing.
The 31-member committee is drawn from 16 political parties represented in Parliament, with the ANC receiving the largest allocation of nine seats. The DA follows with five representatives, while the MK Party will have three members.
The EFF has been allocated two seats, while the remaining parties, including the IFP, PA, FF Plus, ActionSA, ACDP, UDM, Rise Mzansi, BOSA, ATM, Al Jama-ah, NCC, and UAT, will each be represented by one Member of Parliament.
Almost all political parties met the deadline, except the ANC, which indicated that it would submit its names over the weekend.
Two political parties, namely GOOD and the PAC, indicated that they will not participate in the Committee, as each party has only one Member in Parliament who also serves in the Executive.
The following Members have been nominated by their respective political parties to serve on the Committee:
- 1. African National Congress:
– Mrs DE Mpapane,
– Mr X Nqola,
– Mr MS Lekganyane,
– Ms AF Muthambi,
– Mr CM Dugmore,
– Ms DR Direko,
– Mr BM Maneli,
– Mr MG Mahlaule,
– Ms LS Makhubela, and
– Ms KJ Maimela (Alternate). - 2. Democratic Alliance:
– Mr G Michalakis,
– Mr BB Nodada,
– Adv G Breytenbach,
– Ms KL Khakhau and
– Ms NK Sharif. - 3. uMkhonto weSizwe Party:
– Dr MJ Hlophe,
– Mrs SMN Mokoena-Zondi and
– Dr K Litchfield-Tshabalala. - 4. Economic Freedom Fighters:
– Mr JS Malema
– Ms OMC Maotwe. - 5. Inkatha Freedom Party:
– Mr NM Hadebe. - 6 Patriotic Alliance:
– Mr MV Daniels. - 7. Freedom Front Plus:
– Mr WW Wessels. - 8. ActionSA:
– Ms LM Ngobeni
– Mr RAP Trollip (Alternate). - 9. African Christian Democratic Party:
– Mr SN Swart. - 10. United Democratic Movement:
– Mr NLS Kwankwa. - 11. Rise Mzansi:
– Mr SM Gana. - 12. Build One South Africa:
– Dr MA Maimane. - 13. African Transformation Movement:
– Mr V Zungula. - 14. Al-Jama-ah:
– Mr I Ismail-Moosa. - 15. National Coloured Congress:
– Mr F Adams. - 16. United Africans Transformation:
– Dr LW Mahlatsi.
Meanwhile Ramaphosa’s legal team plans to file court papers this week seeking a review of an independent panel’s report that found he may have breached the constitution in his handling of a burglary at his game farm.
The application will be filed at the Western Cape High Court on Monday, Ramaphosa’s lawyer, Peter Harris confirmed.
Ramaphosa explained his decision to challenge the report is to affirm the need for such findings to be correct in law. He argued that accepting the report without challenge “would be to give credence to a panel report that unfortunately has grave flaws”.