The African Transformation Movement (ATM) has filed an application to set aside the parliamentary vote which spared President Cyril Ramaphosa an impeachment inquiry.
Ramaphosa was facing an impeachment inquiry after the Section 89 independent panel probing the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo found that he may have a case to answer to.
Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula afforded MPs a chance to debate on the matter and decide by vote whether Ramaphosa should be subjected to an impeachment inquiry to account for the crime or not.
At the time ATM and other parties such as the EFF asked for the votes to be cast by the method of a secret ballot, stating that it would not be fair to have an open vote after some MPs had allegedly been threatened and forced to vote against the adoption of the report.
However, Mapisa-Nqakula declined their request twice, and proceeded with an open vote, which spared the president an impeachment inquiry into his fitness to hold office. Out of 400 MPs, 214 voted against the report and 148 said the report must be adopted.
According to ATM president Vuyo Zungula, Mapisa-Nqakula did not employ the appropriate legal test when she decided to decline the request for a secret ballot.
Zungula wants the court to declare the National Assembly vote on the report irrational and invalid.
Reads the application in parts: “The decision of the first respondent rejecting the applicant’s request for a closed ballot procedure in respect of the National Assembly’s proceedings in terms of rule 1 291 of the impeachment rules, is reviewed and set aside and declared unconstitutional and invalid.
“The proceedings of the National Assembly, pursuant to the rule 1 291 impeachment rules on 13 December 2022 at the fourth session of the sixth Parliament, are reviewed and set aside and are invalid. It is declared that the voting procedure to be followed by the Assembly in conducting the rule 1 291 impeachment proceedings, is a closed ballot procedure.”
Zungula said according to media reports, Mapisa-Ngakula’s interpretation of the rules has previously been invalidated by the courts, referring back to when the ATM challenged a decision by the then speaker Thandi Modise to refuse for a secret ballot vote on a motion of no confidence against the president a year ago. Their application was thrown off at the high court but they won an appeal against it at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Said Zungula: “The speaker has now made the same mistake. She has not done so once, or even twice. This is the third time that the speaker has exercised her powers in a manner inconsistent with the SCA’s judgment in ATM1.
“She has adopted a course of action that stymies parliamentary accountability and protects the political interests of the political party of which she is a member.”
The application on the validity of the ballot is expected to be heard at the high court on January 23.
Also read: ATM, UDM oppose Ramaphosa’s legal review of panel report
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