'We will win or be defeated'- Mashatile says ANC MPs will toe party line in Phala Phala vote
The focus will shift to Parliament over the next week as lawmakers prepare to convene next Tuesday for a special sitting to debate the findings of the Phala Phala report.
The National Assembly programming committee met late on Monday night where Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula agreed to requests by political parties to have the vote on the section 89 panel report held physically, with MPs present in the house without an option to attend virtually.
If Parliament adopts the report through a simple majority, it would mean the president could face impeachment.
On Monday the ANC resolved it’s MPs should vote against the adoption of the Section 89 panel’s report, which found the president has a prima facie case to answer over allegations he broke the law during and after the theft at his private farm in Limpopo.
“These matters will be debated by Parliament as it wishes,” the ANC’s acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile said.
“Once the presiding officers decide that they are going to convene the house to debate these matters. Our members will be part of those debates, they will put forward the ANC’s views. We will win or we will be defeated. That’s how Parliament works.”
Monday’s meeting also resolved the vote will take place via open ballot and roll call.
Meanwhile, the speaker is yet to indicate if Parliament will oppose Ramaphosa’s Constitutional Court application to have the report set aside.
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