IMPEACHMENT COMMITTEE : Ramaphosa objects to evidence leader over grudge claim as litigation threats loom

The President’s spokesperson dismissed claims of delaying tactics, saying some politicians used appeals to avoid going to prison but ‘the sky is falling when the President chooses to exercise his rights for procedural fairness’.

The likelihood of Parliament’s presidential impeachment process facing litigation at every turn set in on Wednesday when, in a second intervention, President Cyril Ramaphosa objected to MPs’ selection of an evidence leader over claimed conflicts of interest.

The threat of ongoing litigation was acknowledged across party political lines, but the question that was put to a vote was what to do about it in connection with the presidential objections to the impeachment committee’s choice of evidence leader, advocate Thandazani Madonsela.

Ramaphosa, in a letter on the eve of Wednesday’s impeachment committee meeting, said “there is a reasonable apprehension that adv Madonsela SC may harbour a sense of grievance towards me and that he may act upon it” because he had removed the advocate as his representative on the Judicial Service Commission in March 2022.

This had not previously been raised in public. Ramaphosa’s other claimed conflict of interest – that Madonsela had provided legal advice to the ANC on impeachment processes – has been on public record for about two weeks. It was formally disclosed to MPs that Madonsela supervised a junior in a legal opinion, but that his brief ended in early July.

Daily Maverick reported that ANC MPs abstained from the vote on evidence leader so as not to be accused of double standards at this 5 August impeachment committee meeting.

The so-called progressive caucus, including the MK party, the EFF and the African Transformation Movement (ATM), proposed proceeding after dismissing Ramaphosa’s objection as “second-guessing” the impeachment committee’s democratic processes to delay it.

In contrast, the group coalescing around the Government of National Unity (GNU), including ActionSA and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), raised concerns about getting all the legal ducks in a row to avoid future reviews.

Wednesday’s vote on what to do about the presidential objections overwhelmingly went in favour of getting legal advice on options, allowing the impeachment committee chairperson, Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana, the relief that his proposed compromise was accepted.

“We need to take a step back from the politics of the matter and look at the legalities of the matter,” he told MPs before the vote. “It was to be expected every step of the way would be challenged.”

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya dismissed opposition criticisms of delaying tactics and second-guessing.

“The impeachment process is a political process in its design. Of course, opposition parties will criticise everything that the President does in protecting his rights within due process,” he told Daily Maverick.

“Some of their leaders have been using appeals avoiding trials, and others are avoiding prison sentences through due process.