South African parliament has postponed until next week the eagerly awaited debate on whether President Cyril Ramaphosa should face an impeachment inquiry over a scandal involving the cover-up of a robbery at his farm.
The National Assembly’s planning committee, which includes officials from all political parties represented in parliament, decided late Monday night that the debate should be moved from Tuesday to December 13 to allow “for a proper, physical sitting of the House.”
According to ruling African National Congress (ANC) deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude, the decision was taken to satisfy a call by opposition parties to allow lawmakers to cast their ballots in person, rather than virtually.
“I propose we have our sitting to deal with this report using manual voting for December 13 which is next Tuesday. This will allow MPs to make travelling arrangements on time.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters, African Transformation Movement, Democratic Alliance, United Democratic Movement and other opposition argued that only a physical sitting would allow lawmakers to vote according to their conscience.
They wanted a physical meeting so that lawmakers are “under the protection of parliament”.
The opposition’s reasoning is that if members were to cast their ballots virtually, it was likely that they would be asked to do so on a central platform through a party whip. This would place those who broke rank at risk of sanction.
ANC treasurer general Paul Mashatile announced on Monday that the party’s national executive committee had resolved that its lawmakers would oppose the adoption of the report, given that Ramaphosa has taken it on review.
The South African leader is accused of violating the country’s constitution when he failed to report a robbery at his Phala Phala farm that occurred in February 2020 but only came to light in June this year after former state security chief Arthur Frazer filed a criminal complaint against the president.
It is alleged that Ramaphosa did not report the robbery since it involved the theft of millions of US dollars that were illegally stashed in his farmhouse.
JN/APA