Johannesburg - Today and tomorrow, the African Transformation Movement will be at the Western Cape High Court in a bid to challenge the National Assembly’s handling of the Section 89 independent panel report, which found that President Cyril Ramaphosa has a prima facie case to answer on his abuse of his oath of office in the Phala Phala farm scandal.
The court has set aside the 13th and 14th of February to hear the ATM’s case, in which it argues the voting procedure used at the final parliamentary sitting of the year in December, which rejected the report, was irrational.
Last year, members of the ANC were forced to toe the party line in defence of Ramaphosa, with ANC MPs told to reject the report and not vote with their conscience.
It is alleged that the president kept millions of US dollars at his farm in Bela Bela, and news of the scandal broke when, in June 2022, former head of state security Arthur Fraser laid a criminal case against Ramaphosa at the Rosebank police station.
The independent panel, led by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, would find that there was prima facie evidence that the president violated his oath of office.
"In all the circumstances, we think that the evidence presented to the panel, prima facie, establishes that the president may be guilty of a serious violation of certain sections of the Constitution," read the report.
In a second matter for the high court, the party is also challenging the outcome of that vote in light of the panel’s recommendations that Ramaphosa may have a case to answer for in connection with the robbery on his Limpopo farm, Phala Phala.
In June last year, the ATM originally tabled the motion that led to an investigation by an independent panel into misconduct allegations involving the theft of foreign currency from Ramaphosa’s farm.
The party approached the high court on an urgent basis to review and set aside National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision not to grant a secret ballot when the Section 89 report was voted on in December.
"There was a clear intimidation, a threat to the lives of the Members of Parliament. That decision by the speaker was irrational and, therefore, the method of voting that was utilised was unlawful and must be set aside, meaning the voting must be redone, and it must be redone by means of a secret ballot," said ATM leader Vuyo Zungula.
The Star