Cape Town - Parliament will consider the report of the three-member panel of experts which will determine whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has a case to answer on Phala Phala on December 6.
This will be just 10 days before the first day of the ANC elective conference, where Ramaphosa is expected to stand for re-election amid a cloud of alleged crimes on his farm two years ago.
The choice of the day will fall within the now extended programme of the National Assembly, which was initially to rise on December 1.
The turn of events came a day after National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula granted a 13-day extension to the panel to submit its report on November 30 and communicated her decision to the chief whips’ forum.
The panel, which started its 30 days to do its work, was meant to submit its report on Thursday.
At Thursday’s programme committee, Mapisa-Nqakula said she had presented a full report about circumstances which had led to the extension being granted.
She also said the party chief whips had the opportunity to raise whatever questions.
“At the end of interactions with the chief whips, I made a request to the programming whip that it would be preferable that people should discuss the matter so that this morning, at the programme committee, we don’t discuss the matter but rather receive a date on which to discuss the matter,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Programming whip Mina Lesoma said the draft programme was tabled at the chief whips’ forum on Wednesday and that they were advised to reflect on the panel’s report on Phala Phala.
“We are suggesting, having followed the due process in terms of consultation, a December 6 hybrid plenary sitting of the House must be scheduled,” Lesoma said.
This effectively meant that the National Assembly would rise on December 6. DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said her party welcomed the proposal to consider the report six days after it was submitted by the panel.
“It is important that this matter is wrapped up before Parliament rises,” Gwarube said.
She also asked if the report would be published in the parliamentary communiqué known as Announcements, Tablings and Committee (ATC), and whether parties would make declarations when it was considered on the day.
“It is important that the Section 89 report is dealt with before the year ends,” Gwarube said.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said his party welcomed that December 6 was set aside to consider the report.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said the governing party agreed with the set date for the Section 89 report to be debated in the House.
However, Majodina said the sitting on December 6 should be their last day.
“Meaning that we only rise on December 6, no longer the first. It will give us time to package whatever is urgent on December 6,” she said.
EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu said the red berets welcomed that they would get the independent panel’s report and discuss it on the set date. However, he cautioned about closing the door on what could be certain recommendations from the panel’s report.
“If certain things, which perhaps Parliament is expected to be engaged with, let us have a consideration what possible recommendations that can come out of a particular report so that we do not go to recess without exhausting some of the key issues that might arise out of that report,” he said.
“It is, obviously, not safe to just have the sixth as the last day when a report that might have parliamentary implications is going to be tabled.
Let us open the door for possibilities that might arise out of that report,” Shivambu said.
National Assembly secretary Masibulele Xaso said the report would be published in the ATC before its consideration and that it would not need special majority when it was put for a vote.
The House will also on that day consider the Electoral Amendment Bill after processing by the National Council of Provinces before the December 10 deadline set by the Constitutional Court.
Cape Times