Constitution law expert, Pierre de Vos, says weaknesses have been identified in the recently-released Section 89 Panel report on the Phala Phala farm saga.
An independent panel of experts probed the alleged 2020 burglary at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm in Limpopo, saying that he may have committed serious violations and breached anti-corruption laws.
Some political parties and organisations are calling for the president to resign, claiming that the revelations have left him discredited.
However, De Vos says, the evidence and the Panel’s findings appear to have been inadequate.
“The problem with the Panel’s report is that it is actually quite a difficult thing to do because the Panel cannot investigate anything. It can only rely on the evidence before it. At the moment, the evidence is a bit scant.”
He adds: “I think the major weakness of the report is that in terms of the rules of Parliament, impeachment is only feasible if there is a serious violation of the Constitution, of the law and the overall findings that there was really something problematic that happened here, I think that it is very clear. But the report is a bit all over the place and takes a very broad and lackadaisical sort of view of what was required of him.”
Speaking on SAfm Sunrise, De Vos said the report has major weaknesses:
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