By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s legal challenge of the Section 89 report, which found that he had a prima facie case to answer on the Phala Phala scandal, never had any merit and was launched to mislead Parliament into believing that the matter was “before the courts”.
The Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Monday, confirmed that Ramaphosa will no longer be challenging the lawfulness and validity of the report by Parliament’s independent panel.
He noted the decision by the Constitutional Court in March dismissing Ramaphosa’s application to review and set aside the report on the grounds that no case had been made for exclusive jurisdiction.
“The president respects the ruling of the Constitutional Court. The President has been advised, which he accepted, that the panel report and all issues associated with it, have become moot and are of no practical or legal effect,” Magwenya said.
The report, which was released late last year, came to the damning conclusion that Ramaphosa had a case to answer over the theft of millions of rands in foreign currency from his Limpopo game farm, back in 2020.
Parliament’s section 89 independent panel, led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, found that Ramaphosa may have seriously violated the constitution of the Republic.
The independent panel had further found that there was a prima facie impeachable case against the president, with respect to paid work while in office and failing to report the theft on his farm.
But Parliament voted against the adoption of the report.
Holomisa has called on national prosecutions head Shamila Batohi to charge Ramaphosa based on the findings of the report.
“Given the seriousness of the matter and the NDPP’s failure to act thus far, she is given until 1 June 2023 to charge Ramaphosa failing which the appropriate court will be approached on an urgent basis to compel her to do so,” Holomisa said.
“Given recent conduct on the part of the NPA in giving public support to Ramaphosa as an accused person in criminal proceedings and its general record of lack of independence, the UDM will be consulting with its legal team even before the deadline.”
Holomisa described Ramaphosa’s legal challenges as a blatant abuse of the court process to achieve ulterior motives.
Meanwhile, ATM national spokesperson Zama Ntshona says the party will argue that it is unconstitutional for Parliament to reject a report which was born out of its own processes.
“We will argue in the Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional for parliament to reject a report which was born out of parliament’s own processes, especially on the basis that the president ought to be given an opportunity to send it on judicial review,” said the party’s Zama Ntshona.
“South Africans cannot be expected to tolerate this behaviour from the president and Parliament any longer. The president should be held accountable for any laws that he violated in the Phala Phala matter and Parliament should not be allowed to stand in between the president and accountability.”