The African Transformation Movement (ATM), which has been at the forefront of the process to have President Cyril Ramaphosa removed from office, wants parliament to hold a secret ballot when MPs decide next week on whether to adopt the damning panel report on the Phala Phala saga.
MPs are scheduled to consider and debate the report in parliament on Tuesday next week, which could set in motion impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa.
A panel, led by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, was appointed by the National Assembly speaker to look into whether Ramaphosa should face impeachment for allegedly covering up the theft of foreign currency that took place on his private game farm.
The panel report, which was published in parliament on Wednesday found that Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution in his dealings at his luxury farm.
During a programming committee meeting on Thursday, MPs discussed how the debate and voting on the matter could be handled. ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said the vote on whether to adopt the report and its recommendations should be conducted via secret ballot “given the seriousness [of the matter]”.
“We want [that] as a party, when the voting is done and that report is considered, it must be done via a means of a secret ballot … given the gravity of the report and how scathing it is on a sitting president it would be prudent that MPs are protected from being dictated to by their parties as to how to vote … the current method of voting is basically 14 people [chief whips] voting on behalf of 400 people [MPs in the national assembly],” Zungula said.
The ATM has previously unsuccessfully called for a vote on a motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa to be held via secret ballot. The party, which is said to be linked to an ANC faction opposed to Ramaphosa, first brought a motion of no confidence in the president in February 2020, arguing that Ramaphosa had failed to address the economic crisis, the issues at state-owned entities (SOEs) and the increasing unemployment rate.
The party requested that the then-National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise order that voting be done via a secret ballot, arguing that doing so would allow members to “vote freely”. But Modise twice declined the request, saying a secret ballot would undermine transparency. She suggested a secret ballot was only necessary in a highly charged or toxic political situation, and that was not the case at the time.
After the Phala Phala scandal broke, the ATM tabled a motion requesting the house to initiate an inquiry into Ramaphosa’s removal from office as provided for by section 89 of the constitution. Parliament subsequently announced that the National Assembly speaker referred the proposed section 89 motion to an independent panel to decide whether sufficient evidence exists to show Ramaphosa committed any of the violations specified in the motion.
The 87-page panel report states that Ramaphosa has a case to answer.
“We think that the president has a case to answer on the origin of the foreign currency that was stolen, as well as the underlying transaction for it,” the report states.
“There are weighty considerations, which leave us in substantial doubt as to whether the stolen foreign currency is the proceeds of sale. We say this for the following reasons: there is no evidence as to how this money came into the Republic. The exact amount of foreign currency stolen is yet to be disclosed. The investigation by the SARB [Reserve Bank] suggests strongly that it had no records of this money entering this country or being reported as having been received.”
“The theft of the money was not reported to the SAPS and no case number or docket is registered … Information placed before the panel suggests that more than $580,000 was stolen.”
The Phala Phala controversy has rattled Ramaphosa’s presidency and put into sharp focus his commitment to transparency and the fight against corruption, leaving him vulnerable ahead of the party’s internal leadership contest in two week’s time.
Siviwe Gwarube, the chief whip of the main opposition the DA, said the party would prefer “manual voting”, meaning that each MP would have to stand up and state whether or not they support the adoption of the report and its recommendations.
In a letter to National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Gwarube said: “It is my considered view that the current system of voting used to streamline the business of plenaries, whereby political parties’ votes are recorded by their respective Whips, erodes public representatives’ right to cast an individual vote, arguably to the detriment of the ideals of representative and participatory democracy.
“Given the huge public interest in the report, and the precedent-setting nature of the work of the panel, it is therefore imperative that when we consider this report on December 6, we are allowed to cast our votes manually according to a [roll] call vote, in order to allow each of the 400 public representatives in the Assembly to voice his or her vote.”
It will be up to Mapisa-Nqakula to make the financial decision on how proceedings will be conducted on Tuesday.
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