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Recent revelations in the media about a plan to extort money from the embattled Public Protector, Advocate Mkhwebane, have raised concerns about corrupt manipulation of legal processes and abuse of power by the ruling ANC. President Cyril Ramaphosa has no longer pursued a legal application to have the Section 89 Panel’s report into his conduct during the Phala Phala farm gate incident reviewed and set aside. This highlights the complete failure of the ANC-dominated National Assembly to play the vital role envisaged for it under our constitutional scheme. The Constitution imposes strict constitutional obligations on the National Assembly under section 55(2) of the Constitution, which states that the National Assembly must provide for a mechanism to ensure that all executive organs of state in the national sphere of government are accountable to it and maintain oversight of the exercise of national executive authority, including the implementation of legislation. According to Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, it is intuitively obvious that the National Assembly failed to fulfil its constitutional obligation to hold the President accountable.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) President, the Honourable Vuyo Zungula (MP), tabled an Official Motion on the 14th of June 2022 that parliament investigate President Cyril Ramaphosa by forming a Section 89 Committee of Inquiry over allegations that the latter had violated Section 89 of the South African Constitution. The Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, declined the request for the said ad hoc committee to impeach the President. The three-member Panel, consisting of retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, Judge Masipa, and senior advocate Mahlape Sello, found that President Ramaphosa had violated his Oath of Office in handling the break-in and theft of a considerable amount of money in US$ at his Phala Phala game farm. The Panel found that Ramaphosa had committed four severe violations and that there was prima facie evidence against him. The Report states that the President may have committed a severe breach of section 96(2)(a) and section 34(1) of the Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act (PRECCA).
The Panel's unequivocal report should have triggered the duty of the National Assembly to hold the President accountable. Despite these severe findings, the National Assembly resolved to absolve the President of any responsibility, and its members, including Justice Minister Lamola, went on a rampage against the Panel, accusing it of incompetence, lack of ethics, and political bias. Given Ramaphosa's wealth and ability to disburse bribes and largesse to his puppets in the ANC and parliament, it is unsurprising that the ANC Members in Parliament have long abandoned allegiance to the Constitution as a sworn constitutional duty. The most critical details in this text are that the ANC-dominated parliament will never fulfil its constitutional obligations to hold Ramaphosa accountable and that the Public Protector has exposed corruption at the highest level of the ANC kleptocracy. The Constitution guarantees the security of tenure for the Public Protector, who is appointed for a non-renewable period of seven years, and that the Public Protector may be removed from office only on the ground of misconduct, incapacity or incompetence, a finding that effect by a committee of the National Assembly, and the adoption by the Assembly of a resolution calling for that person’s removal from office. These details show that the ANC-dominated parliament will never fulfil its constitutional obligations to hold Ramaphosa accountable and that the Public Protector has exposed corruption at the highest level of the ANC kleptocracy.
The Constitution of South Africa guarantees decisional independence and protection against removal by a simple majority. However, the Constitution does not mean anything to corrupt ANC members. Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane was appointed to the Public Protector portfolio unopposed in October 2016 but has been harassed and vilified by the Boys Club, backed by white corporate bosses and their corporate media machinery. Mkhwebane must suffer because she found evidence implicating Ramaphosa in wrongdoing through clandestine corporate funding supporting his election campaign. The ANC is willing to be seen as a vengeful party working in cahoots with the DA to retaliate against Mkhwebane, shield corruption, and pursue impeachment to entrench white capitalist power.
South African citizens and ANC members must ask themselves whether it is ever justified for a National Assembly to strip citizens of their right to dignity and human rights by lying about or changing the law to deal with that person. MPs have been accused of bringing frivolous impeachment proceedings against a Public Protector to extort money from her. This is a disgrace to South Africa, as it shows the contradictions in constitutional law and its propensity to bend in favour of business and white privilege at the expense of the landless majority. It also fails to recognise that African women are a precious resource, and it is a grave injury to all women when one woman is subjected to a cruel and unusual attack.
This article is originally published by africanewsglobal.co.za and written by Carl ‘Mpangazitha’ Niehaus.
