Parliament’s Section 89 impeachment committee will continue preparing for president Cyril Ramaphosa’s impeachment inquiry despite his attempt to halt the process, with committee chairperson Makashule Gana saying its work will proceed while the Western Cape High Court considers the President’s urgent application.
The High Court on Thursday reserved judgment in Ramaphosa’s bid to suspend Parliament’s impeachment process pending the outcome of his judicial review application challenging the findings of the independent Section 89 panel over the Phala Phala matter.
Judgment is expected by the end of next week.
Speaking outside court after proceedings concluded, Gana said the committee would continue with its scheduled programme, including preparations for the appointment of an evidence leader and the identification of witnesses.
“We are not going to stop until the court has made a determination. The work continues,” Gana said.
He confirmed that the committee remains scheduled to meet next week Wednesday and said the president’s legal team had not sought to prevent the committee’s preparatory work.
“We have long said as a committee that until such time that a competent court indicates that we must not proceed, we’ll proceed,” he said.
Gana said the committee had already received nominations from political parties for the position of evidence leader and Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Services Office had begun assessing the candidates.
“We are now looking at the nominations of the evidence leaders,” he said.
“The political parties have made nominations and Parliament’s legal services are now considering which senior counsel will be available to undertake this responsibility.”
He explained that once an evidence leader has been identified and recommended by the committee, Parliament will make the formal appointment before assistant evidence leaders are selected.
Gana said he was confident the committee would be significantly closer to finalising those appointments when it next meets.
“We’re kind of confident that by next week Wednesday we’ll get closer to knowing who’s going to lead evidence in this regard,” he said.
Ramaphosa approached the High Court seeking an urgent interim interdict preventing Parliament’s impeachment committee from proceeding while the courts determine his broader judicial review of the independent Section 89 panel’s report.
Ramaphosa argues that allowing the impeachment inquiry to continue before the legality of the panel’s findings has been determined would be unfair and would expose him to unnecessary reputational harm.
During proceedings on Wednesday, Ramaphosa’s legal team argued that the panel failed to properly assess whether sufficient evidence existed to conclude that he intentionally violated the Constitution or the law, and maintained that Parliament’s impeachment process should therefore be paused until after the review application is heard in September.
Opposition parties, however, opposed the application, describing it as an attempt to delay accountability.
The Economic Freedom Fighters argued that the president had failed to demonstrate the exceptional circumstances required to justify an interdict against another arm of government exercising its constitutional functions.
Parliament’s impeachment committee also opposed the application, arguing that Ramaphosa was effectively seeking to suspend the implementation of a Constitutional Court order that had already cleared the way for the committee to proceed.
The High Court will now decide whether Parliament’s impeachment committee may continue with its work while Ramaphosa’s judicial review is still pending or whether the process should be temporarily halted until that litigation has been finalised.
