Johannesburg – The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says the parliamentary independent panel investigating impeachment allegations found that President Cyril Ramaphosa was guilty on four serious charges relating to the Phala Phala scandal, but evidence says the cover-up part was omitted.
The IRR said the African Transformation Movement (ATM) submitted to the panel that “Ramaphosa acted in bad faith and was conflicted when he suspended advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the public protector … (and that) ATM contends that he was triggered by the 31 questions relating to the Phala Farm scandal”.
“The question is therefore why he only suspended her on June 8, the day after she announced her investigation into Phala Phala, the day before a court judgment on whether the removal process was lawful, and months before other court challenges were decided.
“Why did it take so long to suspend Mkhwebane? Ramaphosa cannot say it was because he wanted to wait for all of Mkhwebane’s court challenges to clear first, as that had not yet happened. Nor can he say that he was acting expeditiously to protect the country, because then he would have suspended Mkhwebane months or years earlier,” said the IRR.
The institute said.also highlighted that the Western Cape High Court unanimously held that, significantly, the sequence of events leading to the suspension of the applicant could not be discounted or overlooked.
“On June 7, 2022, (Mkhwebane) informed the president in writing that she was instituting an investigation against him with regard to allegations relating to a violation of the Executive Ethics Code in respect of the Phala Phala farm incident.”
The IRR said 31 questions were raised, and the president had to respond within 14 days.
“This correspondence was followed by a public announcement by the applicant on June 8, 2022, that she had decided to launch an investigation against the president in respect of the Phala Phala matter. In response, on June 9, the president decided to suspend the applicant. On these objective facts, it is reasonable to form the perception that the suspension of the applicant was triggered by the decision of the applicant to institute an investigation against the president. There was no other plausible or logical explanation for the premature suspension of the applicant on the eve of a judgment meant to determine the very lawfulness of the suspension,” read the judgment.
The IRR said Ramaphosa had the power to suspend Mkhwebane for months or years but only exercised this power the day after she announced the Phala Phala investigation and the day before the latest judgment was to be handed down on whether Mkhwebane’s impeachment could proceed.
“On June 15, 2022, the IRR’s legal team wrote to the Presidency requesting that he publish all information that supported his claim that his ‘timing’ was beyond reproach. The Presidency stated in reply that ‘(it) is expressly denied that the President acted in a manner that was irregular’ regarding the timing of Mkhwebane’s suspension, while failing to supply the relevant evidence,” the institute said.
The parliamentary panel likewise failed to produce or consider the relevant evidence on the timing of Mkhwebane’s suspension.
The IRR said the panel report claimed that because the high court judgment against Ramaphosa was up for appeal, it had “no force”, and therefore “the panel cannot entertain this supplementary evidence based on the findings of the first judgment”. The institute considers this unreasonable.
“Even if the panel wished not to rely on the high court’s judgment it should have considered the evidence from the high court case, which largely constituted of uncontested written and WhatsApp correspondence emanating from the Presidency, just as it considered evidence supplied by individuals including Arthur Fraser and Wally Rhoode,” the IRR said.
The Star