Former National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula admitted in a podcast interview that her party, the ANC, ordered her and fellow MPs to vote against the section 89 independent panel report in 2022 − a decision she now regrets.
It was heart-wrenching to hear a former head of an arm of state confirm how her party abused its majority to protect the head of state.
This confirmation underscores how parliament has, over the years, been reduced to rubber-stamping the decisions of the majority party, which has rendered the institution not only useless but also undermined the will of the people.
The current speaker, Thoko Didiza, has since established an impeachment committee to investigate whether President Cyril Ramaphosa violated his oath of office regarding the Phala Phala matter.
Didiza’s decision came after a Constitutional Court judgment that found parliament acted unlawfully for having voted against considering the section 89 independent panel report, which found a prima facie case against the president on the Phala Phala incident.
Though the ANC no longer enjoys an outright majority in the National Assembly, it has nine MPs on the 31-member impeachment committee, which will decide the fate of the president.
The DA, its main partner in the government of national unity (GNU), has the second most members, five; the MK Party, three; the EFF, two; and the rest of the smaller parties, some of which are also in the GNU, share the remaining 12 members.
The opposition parties, the MK Party and the EFF, are therefore seriously outnumbered when it comes to voting.
There is no doubt that the ANC will again instruct its representatives to shield their president when the impeachment committee report goes for a vote.
Therefore, the question is, what direction will the DA take when the report goes for voting.
Former DA federal leader Helen Zille had previously stated that the party “won’t vote to impeach a president we voted for”. However, Geordin Hill-Lewis, the new DA leader, stated that the party will act against any wrongdoing found on the part of the president.
What is tricky for the DA is that it needs the ANC to remain in government, and one wonders whether that might sway the party to overlook its principles to remain in power.
Hill-Lewis admitted that there were some ANC members who had lobbied him for his party to support the president even before the establishment of the impeachment committee, which suggests that the ANC and even other parties in the GNU will not stop at convincing others to close ranks to keep the current government intact, even if that comes at a cost.
The 31-member impeachment committee needs to understand that they are accountable not only to their own parties but also to the public. They represent the voices of the people. For too long, MPs have put the interests of their own parties first, thereby suppressing the voices of the people who voted for them.
The public is deeply invested in this issue, and therefore, they must be allowed to express their voices through their public representatives.
Each member of the impeachment committee should factor in the voices of their constituency on this matter so that whatever vote the committee ends up making on the future of the president will be guided by public interest rather than narrow party-political lines.
The seventh parliament must be a platform for genuine public participation and not just party-political allegiances.
This impeachment committee presents a rare moment where the public can also participate in a decision that will determine the future of their president.
- Kekana is the head of communications at the Campaign for Free Expression. He writes in his personal capacity
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