MPs, worried about the time it could take to amend parliamentary impeachment rules, want interim ones to guide President Cyril Ramaphosa’s impeachment committee inquiry and avoid delays in the matter relating to the theft of currency from his Phala Phala game farm.Parliament’s legal advisers recently briefed the subcommittee on the review of the National Assembly rules and proposed avenues that could be followed in drafting rules for the first impeachment inquiry against a president.The subcommittee has the responsibility of drafting the rules to amend the National Assembly’s guidelines on removing the president. This is after the Constitutional Court’s recent judgment which stripped parliament of the legal power to shield a president from facing an impeachment committee in a case where there is prima facie evidence of misconduct. The court provided an interim change on the rules pending amendment by parliament, which now has the task of amending them to ensure it holds the executive accountable.Advocate Andrew Breitenbach, who is on parliament’s legal team, told MPs the subcommittee could draft rules to regulate the proceedings of the impeachment committee before amending the National Assembly’s rules.“It is my respectful view that this committee must give consideration to making rules for this particular inquiry. In other words, you determine in advice for presentation to the assembly a set of rules which align that process with the spirit of the Constitutional Court judgment and required by the rules,” he said. The impeachment committee must establish the veracity of the charges against the president and whether their seriousness amounts to serious misconduct, which is grounds that the constitution provides for the removal of a president. Breitenbach listed several considerations for the subcommittee, including whether the impeachment committee would need a senior counsel to lead evidence in the inquiry, the summoning of witnesses, how documentary evidence should be brought before the committee and how to handle the evidence of witnesses and their questioning by MPs.Breitenbach said the subcommittee should consider whether the rule-making process for the impeachment committee should be open for public comment. If that decision were made it might mean the drafting process could take months.DA parliamentary leader George Michalakis said the process described by the legal team meant the impeachment committee would not start its work soon.“I wish no ill on the president, long may he live, but at this rate I am going to be dead by the time this impeachment hearing happens. That cannot be so, parliament and its reputation rely on how we deal with this,” he said. Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana proposed that the subcommittee consider drafting rules in the interim for the impeachment committee.The rules could mirror those for former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s impeachment proceedings to fast-track the process, he said.“We might spend the next three months just on the process, we need to find the shortest possible way. We ought to find the shortest possible path to execute the directive of the Constitutional Court,” Gana said. The EFF and MK party made the same proposals for the rules to be drafted quickly.We might spend the next three months just on the process, we need to find the shortest possible way. — Makashule Gana, Rise Mzansi MPMPs have until Tuesday to submit proposed drafts to the subcommittee on the amending of the National Assembly rules on the removal of the president. Parliament could deviate from normal procedure to speed up drafting of the rules for the impeachment committee, legal analyst Llewelyn Curlewis said.“Time is of the essence here; they should get it done for now and then work on the rules for future proceedings. Anything is possible, his [Ramaphosa’s] term of office is running out. It will be a sad day that his terms run without this process being concluded,” he said. Koos Malan, a University of Pretoria professor of public law, concurred that it was important for parliament to act expeditiously. He also suggested the processes followed in Mkhwenane’s impeachment could guide the subcommittee.The best process to test evidence was for the impeachment committee to have an evidence leader, Malan said.“Parliament must be given the best process to test the evidence. They should have the competency to summon witnesses, to appoint a senior advocate to lead the evidence and then to give members an opportunity to pose questions,” he said. “They have an example of how previous committees have functioned without any problem. As long as the interim rules account for the values of transparency and proper testing of evidence it would be sufficient. It is the best way to give effect to the order of the constitutional court. “This procedure, which is aimed at testing the way the president acted, has been postponed for a period of three years. They should now act expeditiously.”He added that the chair of the committee “cannot leave the president to be thrown to the hyenas, his dignity must also be protected on the same basis as an accused on trial represented by a lawyer”.An independent panel report in 2022 found that Ramaphosa may have committed a serious violation of the law requiring any person who holds a position of authority to report the theft of R100,000 or more to the police. The matter was pinned on the 2020 theft of about $580,000 cash that had been concealed in a couch at his game farm. The panel, chaired by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, found the president may have a case to answer because he reported the theft of foreign currency to Gen Wally Rhoode, a member of the Presidential Protection Unit, instead of directly to the police. The Constitutional Court made an order for referral of the independent panel report to the impeachment committee. The president was previously shielded from the impeachment inquiry after the National Assembly voted in 2022 not to adopt the report and refer the matter to the impeachment committee.Ramaphosa has decided to challenge the report.