Parliament Asked to Legally Oppose Ramaphosa’s Attempt to Halt Phala Phala Accountability

President Ramaphosa’s claim of urgency is entirely self-created. If the President genuinely believed that the Independent Panel Report was unlawful or procedurally defective, he has had years to challenge it. Instead, he waited until Parliament finally moved to implement the Constitutional Court’s judgment before seeking to halt the process. South Africans are entitled to ask whether this application is genuinely about legal principle or simply an attempt to avoid parliamentary scrutiny.

The need for accountability has only grown stronger since Parliament’s original decision in 2022. New information has continued to emerge regarding the Phala Phala matter, including serious questions surrounding the amount of money stolen, the conduct of law enforcement officials, and the apparent contradictions between the findings of IPID and subsequent SAPS disciplinary proceedings involving officials implicated in the matter.

ActionSA has already submitted a PAIA application to obtain the records of these disciplinary proceedings after a reply to our parliamentary question revealed that SAPS cleared officials whose conduct had previously been criticised by IPID. South Africans deserve to know why these processes reached such dramatically different conclusions.

ActionSA therefore calls on Parliament to defend its constitutional independence, legally oppose the President’s application, and ensure that the Section 89 Committee proceeds without delay. We further call on all parties represented in Parliament, including those participating in the Government of National Unity, to decide whether they stand with constitutional accountability or political expediency.

The Constitutional Court has given Parliament a second opportunity to do its job. For the sake of public confidence in our democracy, Parliament must get it right this time.