Questions arise whether ANC MPs were justified in rejecting the Section 89 report on presidential impeachment.
Advocate Thobeka Ngcukaitobi says its parliamentarians took a “pragmatic” decision by rejecting a Section 89 report which could have led to the impeachment of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ngcukaitobi was representing the ANC in a legal battle over Parliament’s decision to not adopt the report on a robbery at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in February 2020.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and African Transformation Movement (ATM) claimed the rejection was irrational and unlawful. It argued it be set aside.
Ngcukaitobi told Constitutional Court judges on Tuesday that the ANC had dismissed the report because it did not carry sufficient evidence to impeach the president.
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He said the party’s structures had engaged in several meetings to find a way to respond to the findings of the report.
“In one meeting, a decision was taken that the report would be voted against because of an intention of the president to review it.
“No politics. It was a pragmatic decision based on prematurity,” he said.
ANC MPs not threatened
Ngcukaitobi said the ANC had even sought legal advice on the matter and its lawyers found problems with the report’s conclusions.
“The conclusions in the Section 89 report could not be used in their current form,” he said.
Ngcukaitobi said ANC parliamentarians were divided on whether to vote for the adoption of the report or not.
“Parliament considered the balance of evidence and noted dissenting views of some of the members,” he said.
Ngcukaitobi said allegations that ANC members were pressured to vote against the report are not true,
“We ask you, Chief Justice and members of the court, to reject the allegations of threats as unfounded.”
“There were no threats, no unlawful acts of intimidation, party discipline was indeed upheld but personal conscience was respected which is what this court requires.”
Is Mapisa-Nqakula being targeted?
Meanwhile, former speaker of parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who is regarded as a senior member of the ANC, claimed her problems with the law began after she paved the way for a Section 89 panel to investigate the president’s conduct.
Mapisa-Nqakula said this in an affidavit filed in the Pretoria High Court recently asking for the state to reveal more information about her arrest.
ANC MP Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma voted for the adoption of the report and said at the time that she was did so as a disciplined member of the party.
The former Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu was not present during the vote in parliament.
Both Sisulu and Dlamini-Zuma were outspoken about their dissatisfaction with Ramaphosa as ANC president in the run-up to the 2022 ANC elective conference.
However, Ramaphosa succeeded at the conferenceand returned to serve a second term as the country’s president.
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