Ramaphosa objects to evidence leader over grudge claim as litigation threats loom

The likelihood of Parliament’s presidential impeachment process facing litigation at every turn set in on Wednesday when, in a second intervention, President Cyril Ramaphosa objected to MPs’ selection of an evidence leader over claimed conflicts of interest.

The threat of ongoing litigation was acknowledged across party political lines, but the question that was put to a vote was what to do about it in connection with the presidential objections to the impeachment committee’s choice of evidence leader, advocate Thandazani Madonsela.

Ramaphosa, in a letter on the eve of Wednesday’s impeachment committee meeting, said “there is a reasonable apprehension that adv Madonsela SC may harbour a sense of grievance towards me and that he may act upon it” because he had removed the advocate as his representative on the Judicial Service Commission in March 2022.

This had not previously been raised in public.

Ramaphosa’s other claimed conflict of interest – that Madonsela had provided legal advice to the ANC on impeachment processes – has been on public record for about two weeks. It was formally disclosed to MPs that Madonsela supervised a junior in a legal opinion, but that his brief ended in early July.

No date was set for the legal opinion on options concerning the President’s objection to the evidence leader over the claimed conflict of interest.

However, the impeachment committee meets again on the eve of the court hearings from 2 September on Ramaphosa’s review of the Section 89 independent panel report, which found he had a case to answer over the forex theft from sofa cushions at his private Phala Phala game farm.

All procurement paperwork for the evidence leader had been signed.

However, the decision to obtain legal advice regarding the evidence leader selection effectively delays the impeachment committee’s background work that could have continued had the evidence leader’s appointment been finalised.