Questions arise whether ANC MPs were justified in rejecting the Section 89 report on presidential impeachment.
A lawyer for the ANC, 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.
He told Constitutional Court judges on Tuesday that the ANC had rejected the report because it did not carry sufficient evidence to impeach the president.
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He said the party’s structures had been engaged in a number of meetings to find a way to respond to the findings of the report.
“In that 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
However, Ngcukaitobi said the ANC had even sought legal advice on the matter.
But the party’s lawyers also found that there are problems with the conclusions in the report.
“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.
“The 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?
However, the former speaker of parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula who is regarded as a senior member of the ANC has revealed that her problems with the law began after she paved the way for a Section 89 panel to investigate the president’s conduct regarding the robbery which took place on his farm
Mapisa-Nqakula said this in an affidavit filed in the Pretoria High Court where she made an application for the state to reveal more information about her arrest.
One of the most notable ANC members of parliament who voted for the adoption of the report is Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who at the time said she was making her vote 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 the ANC’s president.
However, Ramaphosa succeeded at the 2022 ANC elective conference and returned to serve a second term as the country’s president.
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