Members of Parliament have started arriving on the precincts ahead of this afternoon’s all-important debate and vote on the report of the Panel of Experts which found that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have violated his oath of office.
The session will be held at the nearby Cape Town City Hall.
This owing to the destruction of the National Assembly building by a fire early this year.
The panel was appointed following a motion by African Transformation Movement (ATM) leader, Vuyo Zungula for parliament to investigate whether the President had violated his oath office by not reporting the theft of money from Phala Phala Farm to the police, among other charges.
On Tuesday morning, Zungula told the SABC that he is confident this afternoon’s vote will go in their favour.
“This vote is in the interest of the people of our country for elected members of parliament to hold the executive accountable. Therefore, we are very confident that all members of parliament will vote to scrutinize the President and hold him accountable. We do not believe that members of parliament will vote to violate their oath of office which they swore to be faithful and loyal to our country.”
Zungula says they are still engaging National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to allow the use of a secret ballot to vote on the Phala Phapla report.
Zungula says this is more urgent claiming that some MP’s from the ANC and opposition parties are allegedly facing threats not to vote in favour of the Section 89 Independent Panel report.
He says Mapisa-Nqakula should take the threats against PAC Leader Mzwanele Nyontsho seriously.
Zungula expressed his concern in an interviewed with SABC radio news outside Parliament ahead of the debate.
“A colleague of mine send me a message in fact, he phoned me last night and he said he received a message from an unknown number, where this number is saying, “Mr Nyontsho and Mr Holomisa should you vote in support of the ATM Motion your days are numbers.” So, we view this as a threat that should not be taken lightly by the Speaker because clearly the lives of the members of parliament are threatened by the fact that they want to hold the executive accountable.”
Parliament to debate Phala Phala Report today:
