Cape Town - National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Thursday said Parliament would abide by the decision of the Constitutional Court in the review application lodged by President Cyril Ramaphosa to set aside the Section 89 report on the Phala Phala scandal.
Mapisa-Nqakula also said Parliament would oppose the court challenges to her decision on the voting procedure when the report was tabled in a special sitting last month.
She made the statement when she was responding to questions from IFP chief whip Narend Singh during the meeting of the programme committee on Thursday.
Singh said they had received notification on legal challenges regarding voting procedure when the report was tabled.
“I just wanted to confirm that the office of the Speaker is dealing with those legal challenges, because some of us as parties do not get involved but will respect the decision of the court whatever the decision will be,” he said.
Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso initially said the Office of the Speaker was dealing with the challenge to the voting procedure.
Xaso also said when the matter relating to Ramaphosa’s review of the Section 89 report was “due”, the office would deal with it.
But Mapisa-Nqakula was forthright in her response.
“The report which relates to the panel of legal experts, the independent panel, we have received information about the contents from the president, the content of his submission to the courts.
“We have decided that we will wait for the court to deal with the matter.
‘We will abide by the decisions of the court,” she said.
Ramaphosa took the report on judicial review in the Constitutional Court soon after it was handed to Mapisa-Nqakula and just a week before it was tabled in the National Assembly.
The report of the Section 89 independent panel on Phala Phala, chaired by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, concluded that the information placed before the panel disclosed, prima facie, that Ramaphosa may have committed serious violations of the law and the Constitution.
The panel was formed after the ATM tabled a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa after former head of State Security Agency Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges in connection with the break-in and theft of foreign currency on his Phala Phala farm.
Mapisa-Nqakula also said they have filed papers in the application to challenge her decision not to grant a secret ballot when the majority MPs voted against the report in a roll call vote.
“We have a senior counsel which will challenge the submissions made by the honourable members, who are challenging my ruling for a secret voting process on December 13.
“We are challenging that. I do want to say this,” she said.
Cape Times has confirmed that the ATM filed papers in the Western Cape High Court on an urgent basis on December 20.
In his papers, ATM leader Vuyo Zungula asked the court that the decision of Mapisa-Nqakula to reject their request for a closed ballot procedure should be reviewed and set aside.
He also asked that the proceedings on the day the report was voted against be reviewed and set aside.
“It is declared that the voting procedure to be followed by the Assembly in conducting the rule 1291 impeachment proceedings is a closed ballot procedure,” read Zungula’s plea to the court.
Meanwhile, Mapisa-Nqakula said Parliament hadn’t received correspondence from Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka notifying it of the completion of the investigation into the alleged violation of the Executive Ethics Code by Ramaphosa, except learning about it via the media.
However, she confirmed a request to support and issue subpoenas to some of the witnesses to appear before the Section 194 Inquiry into the fitness of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to hold office.
“Hopefully the panel will be able to receive representations from those witnesses,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She was referring to former public protector Thuli Madonsela, deputy public protector Kevin Malunga, as well as Rodney Mataboge and Bianca Mvuyana, investigators in the Office of the Public Protector.
Cape Times