1008632442__20260517__0 The President’s latest challenge to evidence leader Adv Thandazani Madonsela SC is part of a wider pattern of legal battles that have repeatedly delayed scrutiny of the Phala Phala saga.
There is a peculiar constitutionalism that awakens near personal danger. It sleeps while questions gather dust. But when accountability approaches, suddenly every rule is sacred, every step potentially unlawful and every questioner prejudiced.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has become its most accomplished practitioner.
His objection to Adv Thandazani Madonsela SC as Chief Evidence Leader in the Phala Phala inquiry is not an isolated dispute. It is the latest movement in an unmistakable pattern.
First, the Section 89 report was politically buried. When the Constitutional Court (Concourt) dug it out, the report had to be taken on review. When Parliament prepared to act on it, the public process had to be interdicted. Now the evidence leader must be challenged.
