President Cyril Ramaphosa and deputy president Paul Mashatile. Photo: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Deputy President Paul Mashatile on Thursday told the National Assembly the ruling party was not using its majority to shield President Cyril Ramaphosa from scrutiny regarding the Phala Phala controversy.
In his first question and answer session in the chamber as deputy president
, Mashatile said investigations into the matter that has made for Ramaphosa’s darkest political hour were ongoing, and patience was required.
“The president has expressed his commitment to cooperate fully with all investigations. The government supports this position without reservation,” Mashatile said in a prepared response.
As MPs posed insistent questions about the ANC’s rejection of suggestions that parliament investigate the matter, he became more blunt, saying that was simply how democracy worked.
Mashatile was asked by Economic Freedom Fighters MP Veronica Mente whether unanswered questions about the burglary at his game farm, and the South African Reserve Bank’s finding that the cattle buyer Ramaphosa named as the source of the stolen foreign currency failed to declare the money when he brought into South Africa did not serve efforts to fight crime and corruption.
“Given the fact that investigations are still ongoing it would be ill-advised at this stage to opine on whether or not the government’s effort to combat crime and corruption has been undermined,” Mashatile said.
“We simply do not have sufficient information to reach informed conclusions at this stage, that said there is one important issue that stands out and merits mention even at this stage.”
Another EFF MP, Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi, rose on a supplementary question and recalled that the Zondo commission found that at the height of the state capture era the ANC used its majority in “this house” to shield the government from inquiry.
“We see this tendency again, where your party uses its majority to try and bury the allegations of money-laundering that took place at the president’s Phala Phala farm,” she said, and asked Mashatile what he believed the consequences would be of resisting parliamentary oversight in the long run.
“Do you support the fact that a mere majority can undermine findings of a credible independent panel led by a former chief justice?”
It was a reference to the ANC closing ranks to vote against the adoption of the report of a section 89 panel chaired by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo in December last year. The panel found that there were troubling gaps in Ramaphosa’s account of what transpired at his farm and recommended that he face an impeachment tribunal.
“You got it wrong, we are not shielding. Let me repeat what I said, the president has expressed his commitment to cooperate fully with all investigations, so there is no shielding,” Mashatile said, adding that there seemed to be a rush to find Ramaphosa guilty of wrongdoing without due process.
“It is not correct. We are a democracy, we have institutions that we have set up, independent, nobody is interfering with them. Let’s not be impatient, let’s allow these institutions to do their work properly. The president is cooperating, he is not interfering.”
He noted that the South African Revenue Service concluded that both Ramaphosa and the game farm were tax compliant, and said parliament would soon have the benefit of the final report by the public protector on the matter.
A preliminary report sent to affected parties a fortnight ago cleared Ramaphosa of wrongdoing. The public protector had a narrow mandate, confined to the four corners of the complaint submitted to her office by the African Transformation Movement, and could only pronounce on whether he had breached the executive ethics code or flouted the Constitution.
Democratic Alliance chief whip Siviwe Gwarube disagreed with Masthatile’s reply to Mkhaliphi, saying the ruling party had blocked every attempt by parliament to hold Ramaphosa to account and rendered the institution “toothless because if the ANC’s majority and commitment to shielding the president”.
Nothing in law stopped parliament from investigating the president while other agencies are still looking into what transpired at Phala Phala, Gwarube added.
“Honourable member, I think that is how democracy works. The majority must have its way,” Mashatile replied.
“Maybe when you have an opportunity to govern, you will understand … I am told that it is what you do in the Western Cape, and I am not blaming you.”
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s Narend Singh wanted to know whether Mashatile supported calls to establish a portfolio committee to oversee the presidency.
“I think for now the mechanisms to hold the president to account are adequate. I think opposition parties know the president can come here to answer questions. So you know he is really at your disposal to hold him accountable.
“I think let’s continue that way.”