With impeachment proceedings firmly under way in parliament, President Cyril Ramaphosa came under fire on Tuesday as opposition parties questioned his ability to clean up the criminal justice system.
This played out in the makeshift chamber of the Dome in Cape Town as the ghost of Phala Phala loomed large when MPs debated the Presidency’s more than R800m budget vote for 2026/27.
Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana, the newly elected chairperson of the impeachment committee that holds the power to determine Ramaphosa’s stay in office, said he expected the president to fully co-operate with his committee despite his section 89 panel report judicial review application.
“Crucially the constitution places oversight over you and your office in this house, and over the newly established impeachment committee.
“While it is within your right to take the independent panel report under judicial review, this House must be clear, the committee will proceed with its work until such time that the courts pronounce otherwise.
“We will do our work without fear, without favour and without prejudice.
“Our actions will speak for themselves, not politicking. It’s good that you exercised your rights, but it must also be clear to South Africans that you will subject yourself to the impeachment committee if we get to that stage and you are called to appear before the committee.
“While the impeachment committee is unprecedented before parliament, even the late president Mandela appeared before a court of law when called, despite his personal irritation. This is the weight of leadership.
“This significant milestone signals strength in our constitutional democracy.”
Gana was elected chairperson of the section 89 impeachment committee on Monday following behind-the-scenes negotiations at the weekend between his party and other GNU partners such as the ANC and the DA.
That election has now set the ball rolling, with the impeachment committee set to hold its first working meeting to develop a programme of action and terms of reference in the coming days.
It was for this reason that opposition MPs did not waste time in raising the Phala Phala spectre after Ramaphosa delivered his budget vote speech.
And then you tell us you are going to dismantle criminal syndicates. How? The criminal syndicates are in your house. They are in your living room. How will you dismantle them? They are under the sofa, they are in the constitutional and legal system.
— Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala, MK Party MP
In his address to MPs, the president steered clear of the issue and focused on job creation, the economy, crime and migration.
But opposition MPs were not sold, with the MK Party’s Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala firing the first salvo.
“And then you tell us you are going to dismantle criminal syndicates. How? The criminal syndicates are in your house,” charged Litchfield-Tshabalala.
“They are in your living room. How will you dismantle them? They are under the sofa, they are in the constitutional and legal system. They are in your municipalities. They are in the police and in the defence force. How are we running a defence force where criminals can break in and steal weapons?” the MK Party MP said.
She slammed Ramaphosa’s administration for raising taxes on fuel, VAT and sugar, saying this was detrimental to the poor and not the rich, as nothing has been done about corporate tax.
DA parliamentary leader George Michalakis was also concerned about the president’s plans to root out corruption in the criminal justice system.
“When the president says he is prepared to face the mothers who have lost children to gang violence, he makes a serious statement. But the question before us is not whether he can face them.
“The question is whether the state has done everything within its power to prevent those losses in the first place. Can any of us honestly say that it has?
“Every day that passes, another 58 South Africans lose their lives. These are not abstract figures on a spreadsheet.
“They are sons and daughters raised with hope and love. They are mothers and fathers who worked tirelessly to provide for their families. They are elderly citizens who spent a lifetime contributing to society.
“They are vulnerable children who fall prey to predators because the state has failed to shield them from exploitation and violence.”
But ActionSA’s parliamentary leader Athol Trollip was more pointed.
“For example, the lifestyle audits you promised and yet have still not materialised. The president tells us the system is still being developed. The emperor has no clothes.”
But minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni dismissed the rebukes.
“The work to decontaminate the criminal justice system is important to the Presidency as the ultimate custodian of national security.
“And the Madlanga commission is working to fast-track the identification and confirmation of criminal elements within the SAPS and criminal justice system,” she said.
“Corruption and weak governance undermine delivery. They drain resources, undermine public trust and weaken the legitimacy of the state.
“To the chagrin of the DA, he appointed the Madlanga commission, which is accelerating the fight on the decontamination of the criminal justice system.”
Ramaphosa is due to close his budget vote debate on Wednesday afternoon.
