Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) spokesperson Sinawo Thambo has dismissed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s latest legal move to review and set aside the independent Phala Phala panel report, characterizing it as a politically motivated maneuver inconsistent with the President’s stated commitments to transparency and accountability.
Thambo stated the party was “not surprised” by the application, noting that Ramaphosa had previously initiated a similar review before withdrawing it after securing a parliamentary majority to halt the process. The President has now revived the application four years later, following a Constitutional Court ruling that declared the earlier efforts to suppress the report unconstitutional.
“This should be something that shows you that he’s not an earnest person,” Thambo said. “He’s not someone who’s doing this because he has any questioning of the report in itself, but he’s simply exercising a maneuvering.”
The EFF emphasized that, per the Constitutional Court’s judgment, Parliament’s Section 89 impeachment process must proceed unless and until the independent panel’s report is formally set aside by a court. Thambo affirmed that parliamentary work “is not going to stop” and that the EFF will actively oppose any attempt by the President to interdict the impeachment committee.
As an interested party in the Section 89 process, the EFF submitted evidence that contributed to the development of the report compiled under the leadership of the Chief Justice. Thambo confirmed the party will oppose both the President’s review application and any subsequent legal moves aimed at halting Parliament’s accountability processes.
Addressing Ramaphosa’s argument that continuing the impeachment process while the report faces judicial scrutiny would be a “travesty,” Thambo countered that such a position contradicts the Constitutional Court’s directive. He stated that if the President views the continuation of parliamentary work as a travesty, “that means he’s saying that the Constitutional Court is committing a travesty in itself.”
Thambo described the President’s current legal strategy as operating “as a constitutional delinquent” and expressed confidence that any application to interdict Parliament’s work would fail. “We are going to take him on whenever he tries to avoid this accountability and transparency,” Thambo said, adding that the EFF will be “part and parcel of any court application or any court process where he is trying to stifle this report.”
The spokesperson reiterated that the EFF remains committed to ensuring the President is held accountable through the constitutional processes currently underway in Parliament.
