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President Cyril Ramaphosa has pushed back at a court bid seeking to overturn an order halting parliament’s impeachment committee public hearings, arguing it fails to meet the requirement for direct access.Ramaphosa filed papers with the Constitutional Court on Wednesday in which he opposes the application made by parliament’s impeachment committee chair, Makashule Gana, the ATM, the EFF and former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party. The applicants are seeking to overturn an order by the Western Cape High Court interdicting the impeachment committee from proceeding with public hearings. The interim interdict was granted to pause the public hearings pending a review application by Ramaphosa challenging an independent panel report triggering the impeachment inquiry processes. “This court does not grant direct access for the asking. It grants it in exceptional circumstances only,” Ramaphosa argues, adding the appeal case does meet the exceptional circumstances warranting direct access to the highest court. Ramaphosa faces an investigation of serious misconduct, now before an impeachment committee, which could lead to him facing a National Assembly vote for his removal as president. Ramaphosa’s review application is seeking to set aside the independent panel’s report — which found prima facie evidence that he may have violated the law in dealing with the theft of $538,000 (about R8.8m) from his Phala Phala game farm in 2020 — is set for hearing on September 2-4. Ramaphosa contends the applicants have not argued a case exempting them from seeking leave to appeal from the high court and bypassing the Supreme Court of Appeal. “This court has said many times that it is not geared for urgent proceedings. A party who seeks an urgent hearing must therefore set out a proper motivation in the founding affidavit. The applicants do not do so,” Ramaphosa argues. “The applications have no prospects of success. No case for direct access therefore exists, and this court should refuse it.” Ramaphosa challenges the urgency of the appeal and scrutinises the arguments by opposition parties that MPs are pressed for time and will be on recess to prepare for local government elections before November 4 and halt their parliamentary duties.In its papers, the ATM, led by Vuyo Zungula, contends that with the interdict in place, the impeachment hearing could be delayed for months because MPs will be campaigning for the local elections.“If holding me to account matters as much as the applicants say, it can take priority over campaigning. The 31 members of the impeachment committee can continue with the committee’s work while other members of the National Assembly take recess or campaign,” Ramaphosa says. “None of them stands as a ward councillor in those elections. The urgency the applicants claim amounts to convenience. I do not accept that the applicants act in the public interest, and I do not accept that my political opponents on the impeachment committee approach the matter with detachment.”Business Day
