Rise Mzansi chief whip Makashule Gana has been elected chair of the National Assembly committee to deal with the revived Phala Phala impeachment process against President Cyril Ramaphosa.Gana defeated UAT leader Wonderboy Mahlatsi by 19 votes to 12 at the committee’s first meeting in the Good Hope Chamber at parliament on Monday, after hours of lobbying between parties over who should lead one of parliament’s most politically sensitive inquiries.After his election, Gana said the committee’s work will continue despite ongoing legal processes linked to the Phala Phala matter.“There are processes that are on the go with regard to the courts, but that process will not stop the work of the committee at the moment. It will happen in parallel,” Gana said.He thanked MPs who participated in the election and said the committee will proceed with matters within its control.“The things that are in our control, we will ensure that they are done. “We will be in communication with all the members of the committee in terms of the next processes that will be taken,” he said.The result confirmed Gana as the compromise candidate after parties opposed to an ANC chair rejected the governing party’s initial preference for the chair of the committee on the Presidency, Doris Mpapane.NominatedEFF MP Omphile Maotwe nominated Mahlatsi for the position. The nomination was seconded by UDM chief whip Nqabayomzi Kwankwa.Gana was nominated by the ANC and seconded by DA parliamentary leader George Michalakis, signalling an alignment between the two largest parties on the committee despite earlier uncertainty over whether the DA would back a candidate supported by the ANC.Gana received the support of the ANC’s nine members, the DA’s five members and one member each from the IFP, PA, FF Plus, Rise Mzansi and Al Jama-ah.Mahlatsi received the support of the MK Party’s three members, the EFF’s two members and one member each from ActionSA, the ACDP, UDM, Bosa, the ATM, NCC and UAT.The outcome gives Gana control of the committee at the start of a process that will revisit whether Ramaphosa has a case to answer over the Phala Phala matter.The committee was established after the Constitutional Court revived the section 89 process linked to the 2020 theft of foreign currency from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.The court’s judgment forced parliament to return to a process that had stalled after the National Assembly voted in 2022 against proceeding with the report of the independent section 89 panel.That panel had found there was prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution and committed serious misconduct. Ramaphosa has denied wrongdoing and has challenged the report in court.