As President Cyril Ramaphosa heads to court to review the Independent Panel's report, Parliament is set to have its first Impeachment Committee meeting on Monday.
Image: GCIS
Negotiations for the chairperson of Parliament’s Impeachment Committee are set to continue just before the committee’s first meeting on Monday afternoon, with opposition parties uniting and hoping to leave the ANC as the odd man out.
Several political parties on the committee have indicated that negotiations for the position of chairperson are ongoing, and that, for the committee to retain its integrity, the chairperson should not come from the ANC but rather the opposition parties.
The committee, which was established after the Constitutional Court judgment directed Parliament to investigate whether there are valid grounds to recommend President Cyril Ramaphosa’s removal from office, will have their first meeting on Monday at 2 pm to elect a chairperson.
Out of the 31-member seats on the committee, the ANC has nine, followed by the DA with five, the MK Party with three, EFF with two, while the 12 smaller political parties have one seat.
According to reports, the ANC are expected to nominate Doris Mpapane as their nominee, but parties have made their opinions clear that they would prefer to have the chairperson come from a smaller party.
DA spokesperson, Jan de Villiers, said that while negotiations for the committee chair are ongoing, “the DA has from the outset said that we don't think it's a good idea that the ANC gets a chairperson position”.
“Neither will we push for ourselves to be the chairperson. The negotiations, which will continue until tomorrow (Monday), will be about who would be the best independent and objective chairperson for the committee. I think that decision will probably be closer to the committee's start of its work.”
De Villiers said that they believe it is in the best interest of the impeachment committee and its integrity for the chairperson not to come from the ANC.
“It really is, obviously, a very important committee, and they're going to do something, which should be above reproach. There should be an objective chairperson who is not going into the process with pre-determined ideas of determining the outcome before the process has actually been completed.”
De Villiers said that it is important for the process to stand up to scrutiny.
ATM President Vuyo Zungula said that the chairperson must be from the opposition.
“The principle has always been that since the days of Nkandla Ad Hoc. A party that has signed the Statement of Intent and is part of the GNU will be conflicted.”
The African Transformation Movement leader, Vuyo Zungula.
Image: Oupa Mokoena/Independent Newspapers
RISE Mzansi Chief Whip, and impeachment committee member, Makashule Gana, said: “The conversations are ongoing, and I'm confident that before the start of the meeting tomorrow, parties who have found each other in terms of the best candidate to chair the committee.
“The conversations are progressing in an encouraging direction, and I’m quite confident that by tomorrow, a sufficient consensus will start emerging,” Gana said.
“The vote is taking place in less than 24 hours from now. It's a delicate time at this stage. The phones are ringing, the conversations are ongoing, and permutations are being considered.”
Build One South Africa (BOSA) spokesperson Roger Solomons said they believe the impeachment committee must be chaired by someone who ultimately displays legal competence and has a sense of knowing what the historical issues are that go into that.
“(The chair should be someone) in pursuit of getting the facts, and not partisan. The question on the table is whether there's a serious breach of the Constitution, and that must be the (central) question, not whether or not they want the president to be impeached. For example, the ANC would never want its own president to be impeached.
“It cannot be chaired by the ANC or, in particular, members who are sitting within the GNU. We think that the opposition must be able to chair that,” Solomons said.
When asked if BOSA leader, Mmusi Maimane, would be open to chairing the committee, Solomons said that Maimane would be available for the job, given his experience in Parliament and having worked with the respective parties.
Build One South Africa leader, Mmusi Maimane.
Image: Parliament RSA/Supplied
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe, however, believes that the ANC will do everything in their power to retain the position of chairperson of the committee. He said that Ramaphosa is “a desperate man” who took advantage of being able to tell members of the ANC to 'kill the Phala Phala report'.
“We see that at the moment, he's also busy running to the courts. He's trying to make sure that there's no stone left unturned to stop the whole impeachment process from going ahead.
“You can rest assured that, from his level of desperation, members of the ANC will also be persuaded to ensure that they stick to the idea that the chairperson of the impeachment committee will be a member of the ANC,” Seepe said.
“Because once you are a chairperson, you have leverage in terms of directing the discussion. You have leverage in giving weight to certain things.
“Looking at Ramaphosa’s desperation, I don't see this as something that they will give in to,” Seepe said.
“They (the ANC) are also hoping that the impeachment process will not even proceed… The parties can negotiate, can do whatever, but the ANC will always use its numbers to get its way.”
theolin.tembo@inl.co.za