Judgment has been reserved in the Western Cape High Court in the review application challenging the Section 89 independent panel report brought by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Party) legal representative Advocate Dali Mpofu SC earlier argued that the Western Cape High Court does not have jurisdiction to review and set aside the Section 89 Independent Panel report as per the application of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mpofu said the court cannot do that after the Constitutional Court ordered the National Assembly to establish an Impeachment Committee based on the report.
The Western Cape High Court has been hearing the application since Wednesday.
Earlier, the President’s lawyers argued that the report is flawed and that the Independent Panel erred in its mandate and applied the wrong legal standard, with no interrogation of the evidence before it, which remains untested.
Mpofu said that the Western Cape High Court would be undermining the order of the highest court in the land if it sets aside the Section 89 Independent Panel Report.
Mpofu asked the court where it would get the power to do such.
“This court, therefore, is not in a position in terms of our scheme of democracy to say when the Constitutional Court tells you that the panel is to determine whether there’s a case to answer, to say no, the Constitutional Court doesn’t know what it’s doing. Where would this court get the power to do that?”
He further argued that the court must not aid President Ramaphosa in running away from accountability. He says the President has a case to answer, and he must take the public into confidence about the Phala Phala saga.
“Where did the dollars come from? Who sent Rhoode to Namibia, to no man’s land? Who tortured those workers? What happened to General Mfazi? Who poisoned him? What happened to so-called Mr. Mdlovu, Mr. Hazim, who arrived here in 2019 on Christmas carrying dollars, knowing exactly how many buffaloes he needed and how much they cost?”
Judge Mark Sher put it to Mpofu that, those are not the charges in the report, that the President has to answer to.
Mpofu responded by saying the dollars in question, are the basis of all the charges.
“The money is an intrinsic part of the PRECCA (Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act) charge. The money is an intrinsic part of why Rhoode went to Namibia to go and torture or kidnap the person who stole their money. The money is the reason why the President allegedly gave Rhoode an unlawful instruction not to report the matter to the hawks, the money.”
Meanwhile, United Africans Transformation’s (UAT) legal representative Advocate Thabani Masuku, SC argued that the President’s version must be tested in the Impeachment Committee.
“If his explanation is correct, the Impeachment Committee is the constitutional forum in which that vindication should occur after evidence is tested. Accountability is not a presumption of guilt, it is the means by which guilt or innocence is responsibly determined.”
Both parties asked the Western Cape High Court to dismiss the application.
VIDEO | Western Cape High Court proceedings:
-Report by Yamkela Mtshiyo
