ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has labelled Parliament's ad hoc committee, which investigated claims made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, as "useless" compared with the Madlanga Commission, which is investigating the same allegations.
Mbalula made the remarks while speaking to journalists on Wednesday outside the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), where he testified in his capacity as a former police minister.
He argued that the ad hoc committee had been used as a political tool and said Parliament should have allowed the Madlanga Commission to complete its work.
"The President established the Madlanga Commission but they rushed to establish the ad hoc committee in Parliament to run ahead of Madlanga," he said.
"You realise that the parliamentary process was not as thorough as Madlanga. Even at face value, you can see that the most effective and lawful process, one that can even lead to prosecutions, is the Madlanga Commission."
"The parliamentary process has come to a conclusion, while Madlanga is still grinding on and doing a wonderful job that is welcomed by the majority of South Africans. Parliament has exercised its rights, and that is well and good, but we need to ask ourselves whether we should have given Madlanga all the support."
Mbalula said the ANC would study the findings of the ad hoc committee before making any conclusive comments on its report.
He acknowledged that the report affects the ANC because suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was deployed to government by the party. He added that the ANC had only seen snippets of the report relating to Mchunu.
"We will receive the report from the ad hoc committee and make our views public once we have considered it in full," he said.
Mbalula also defended President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to take the Section 89 independent panel report, chaired by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, on judicial review, saying the President was merely exercising his constitutional rights.
Ngcobo found that Ramaphosa had a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala farm scandal, in which foreign currency worth about US$580,000, allegedly hidden inside couches, was stolen.
The Section 89 independent panel, chaired by Ngcobo, previously found prima facie evidence suggesting that Ramaphosa may have a case to answer over the theft.
In May, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya ruled that the National Assembly's decision not to refer the independent panel's report to an impeachment committee was unlawful and invalid.
Following Maya's ruling, Parliament established a Section 89 impeachment committee. However, Ramaphosa has approached the courts seeking to interdict the committee from beginning its work, arguing that it should not proceed while his application to review the Ngcobo report remains before the courts.
On Wednesday, the African Transformation Movement (ATM), the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) appeared in the Western Cape High Court to oppose Ramaphosa's application to halt the impeachment process.
Representing Parliament's Section 89 Impeachment Committee, advocate William Mokhare SC argued that granting Ramaphosa's application would set a dangerous precedent by allowing court orders to be ignored through legal technicalities.
Mokhare further argued that Ramaphosa's urgent application to interdict the impeachment process had been brought too late, saying the President had previously withdrawn his application when he had an opportunity to proceed.
Mbalula said some parliamentarians wanted one process to overtake another, just as they had done by establishing the ad hoc committee while the Madlanga Commission was already sitting.
He said Parliament should allow Ramaphosa's review application to run its course before proceeding with the impeachment process.
"The President has asked Parliament to give him a chance to proceed with this because he believes Judge Ngcobo's report is flawed and therefore he wants to take it on review. They refused. Now we are in court because of the interdict. Political parties are playing a political game," Mbalula said.
"Matters relating to Section 89 are being sequenced properly. The ANC has not stood against anyone. The court judgment has been implemented as it is and the President has exercised his rights in relation to that."
"The fact of the matter is: can you allow the review to run ahead of any other process? What if its outcome is different and it affects the impeachment process itself?"