EFF writes to Didiza asking for urgency in setting up impeachment committee

Straight from its victory in the Constitutional Court on Friday, the EFF has written to parliamentary speaker Thoko Didiza asking her to immediately initiate the process to establish an impeachment committee that gives effect to the top court’s judgment. “The Constitutional Court specifically rules that the National Assembly must refer the section 89 independent panel report to an impeachment committee. We write to you to immediately initiate the process to constitute the impeachment committee to give effect tothe judgment of the court,” EFF chief whip Nothando Nolutshungu said in the letter to the speaker.

“Kindly revert to us with clear timelines in which you will give effect to this judgment of the apex court in SA.” “The president [Cyril Ramaphosa] has got to come, has got to sit there. He can’t send any minister. And then, among other things, we’re going to demand that the impeachment committee must go to Phala Phala,” EFF president Julius Malema said.

“Remember, the [section 89] panel was limited. The impeachment process will not be limited. It can go for many years even trying to come up with a clear report that demonstrates if there was wrongdoing or there was no wrongdoing.

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Remember, impeachment is not a motion of no confidence. It has dire consequences for the president.” TheConstitutional Courtset aside the National Assembly’s vote not to adopt an independent panel report that found President Cyril Ramaphosa had a case to answer regarding a robbery at his Phala Phala game farm. The ruling, handed down by chief justice Mandisa Maya on Friday, is set to be an acid stress test for the government of national unity (GNU) as parties such as the DA, PA, IFP and other smaller parties in the coalition government would have to decide whether to protect the president.

Opposition parties the EFF, MK and ATM said speaker Didiza should immediately set up the impeachment committee as instructed by the top court. The ANC no longer holds a majority in parliament after the 2024 national elections, which fundamentally changes the arithmetic of any vote on the committee’s findings. The court found the parliamentary vote, which protected the president from facing an impeachment committee, was invalid.

It found that a parliamentary rule that the National Assembly had relied on to make the vote was inconsistent with the constitution. This judgment also draws a clear line between the DA and the ANC. For too long, the ANC has presided over a political culture in which accountability is delayed, diluted or avoided when it becomes inconvenient

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