By: Natasha Archary
An independent three-person panel will decide whether President Cyril Ramaphosa faces an inquiry over the Phala Phala scandal.
Comprising of Justice Sandile Ngcobo, Judge Thokozile Masipa and Professor Richard Calland, the panel was appointed by National Assembly Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Justice Ngcobo is the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, while Judge Masipa used to head up the Gauteng division of the High Court of SA.
Professor Calland is an associate professor of Public Law at the University of Cape Town.
The independent panel will have 30-days to report back to Mapisa-Nqakula as to whether or not there is a need for the President to face an inquiry.
This after opposition parties called for a motion of no confidence against Cyril Ramaphosa.
The Kaya Drive team shared their thoughts on the independent panel and debated whether the selected candidates will be neutral or have the President’s best interest at heart.
“Basically they were forced to put together the panel because of pressure from the African Transformation Movement and other opposition parties calling for a motion of no confidence.
Remember the speaker of the house is an ANC member. That’s like me standing trial for something, and they call you guys, my Kaya Drive team to be the jury.”
Sizwe Dhlomo on the Independent Panel that was selected to determine whether Ramaphosa faces a Phala Phala inquiry
Listeners also don’t have any faith in the panel, and believe this is just another delaying tactic by Ramaphosa himself to dodge the bullet of answering questions around the Phala Phala scandal.
Some of the listener responses:
“You see the problem Sizwe, is that people have already judged for themselves that the President is guilty, so it doesn’t matter who the panel is.”
“This was carefully planned, no doubt about it. With Judge Masipa there were rumours she was bribed to hand down a less harsh sentence to Oscar Pistorius. Now she’s on the President’s panel, so we have to ask, how much is she paid to turn the other way and decide, there is nothing to investigate?”
