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A recommendation is to be made to the National Assembly’s rules committee — which will consider whether President Cyril Ramaphosa should be impeached or not — for a fit-and-proper requirement to be introduced into the rules for members.This was decided on Wednesday by a subcommittee of the rules committee on the basis of a legal opinion by parliament’s legal advisers provided at the request of speaker of the National Assembly Thoko Didiza, who has decided on the size and composition of the impeachment committee.The recommendation was supported by the ANC, DA, Freedom Front Plus and Rise Mzansi but opposed by the MK Party and the EFF. It assigns political parties the responsibility to choose their representatives on the impeachment committee but that they will be obliged to decide on a rational basis. The rules committee will consider the recommendation on Friday, and the National Assembly will vote on the proposed new rules on June 23.The membership on the committee of EFF leader Julius Malema and MK Party parliamentary leader John Hlophe has been contested on the grounds they are not fit and proper — Malema because he has been convicted and former Western Cape judge president Hlophe because he was impeached as a judge by the National Assembly in 2024. Hlophe was found guilty of gross misconduct for attempting to improperly influence two Constitutional Court justices, Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta, in 2008 to rule in favour of Jacob Zuma in a corruption case. Malema was in April sentenced to five years’ direct imprisonment for violating gun laws. He was granted leave to appeal against the sentence but not against his conviction. DA chief whip George Michalakis explained that if other political parties objected to the rationality of a political party’s choice of a committee member, this could be put to the vote in the National Assembly and even taken to court on review. In terms of the legal opinion by parliamentary legal advisers Sueanne Isaac and Michael Prince, a “fit and proper” member of the impeachment committee must have the capacity to perform the required functions and have the character to match the importance of those functions.The lack of the requisite capacity would include factors such as laziness, lethargy, difficulty in maintaining focus or concentration, forgetfulness and indecisiveness. The EFF and MK Party objected to this definition. The lack of the requisite character would include reckless, dishonest, dishonourable or unworthy conduct manifesting a lack of integrity and the nature and seriousness of the misconduct. “As with all other exercises of public power, decisions taken by political parties (in terms of the rules of the National Assembly) must be rational in the objective sense described by the Constitutional Court,” the legal opinion stated. “Action that fails to pass this threshold is inconsistent with the requirements of our constitution and therefore unlawful. A plain reading of the National Assembly rules provides that each political party who appoints a member to the impeachment committee must ensure that the member is a fit and proper person,” the opinion said. The impeachment committee has been tasked with investigating whether Ramaphosa committed serious violations of the constitution and his oath of office in relation to the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala home in Limpopo. The impeachment inquiry stems from the Constitutional Court’s judgment last month that found parliament acted unconstitutionally in 2022 when the ANC used its majority to vote against a section 89 independent panel report. The panel found Ramaphosa had a prima facie case to answer over the theft of more than $580,000 at Phala Phala. The apex court ordered the panel’s report be referred to an impeachment committee for further investigation. Ramaphosa has taken the panel report on judicial review and has also lodged an urgent application for the proceedings of the impeachment committee to be halted pending the outcome of the judicial review. Business Day
