Phala Phala saga: ATM, UDM call on Ramaphosa to face the music
The United Democratic Movement and the African Transformation Movement have both called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to clean over the Phala Phala game farm scandal.
The Presidency on Monday confirmed that Ramaphosa will no longer be challenging the lawfulness and validity of the report by Parliament’s independent panel.
The report, which was released late last year, came to the damning conclusion that Ramaphosa had a case to answer over the theft of millions of rands in foreign currency from his Limpopo game farm, back in 2020.
Parliament’s section 89 independent panel, led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, found that President Ramaphosa may have seriously violated the constitution of the Republic.
The independent panel had further found that there was a prima facie impeachable case against the president, with respect to paid work while in office and failing to report the theft on his farm.
But Parliament voted against the adoption of the report.
UDM President Bantu Holomisa has called on national prosecutions head Shamila Batohi to charge Ramaphosa based on the findings of the report.
"Given the seriousness of the matter and the NDPP's failure to act thus far, she is given until 1 June 2023 to charge Mr Ramaphosa failing which the appropriate court will be approached on an urgent basis to compel her to do so,” Holomisa said on Monday.
"Given recent conduct on the part of the NPA in giving public support to Mr Ramaphosa as an accused person in criminal proceedings and its general record of lack of independence, the UDM will be consulting with its legal team even before the deadline."
Meanwhile, ATM national spokesperson Zama Ntshona says the party will argue that it is unconstitutional for Parliament to reject a report which was born out of its own processes.
"We will argue in the Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional for parliament to reject a report which was born out of parliament’s own processes, especially on the basis that the president ought to be given an opportunity to send it on judicial review,” said the party’s Zama Ntshona.
"South Africans cannot be expected to tolerate this behaviour from the president and Parliament any longer. The president should be held accountable for any laws that he violated in the Phala Phala matter and Parliament should not be allowed to stand in between the president and accountability."
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