The DA has been accused of agreeing to shield President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala farm scandal as part of a sweetener for the Government of National Unity (GNU) agreement.
South Africans are reacting strongly against utterances made by DA federal leader, Helen Zille, who this week, stunned many when she suggested that part of the GNU sweet deal between the DA and the ANC was to ensure that the Phala Phala matter does not see the light of day.
“We will only support impeachment only if the evidence suggest that there should be an impeachment. I do not think that right now we are in a position given the fact that we have signed the statement of intent to start impeaching the President we have just voted for. That is the agreement that we have made. We have not said that in future, we will not do anything. But we will not support a motion of no confidence in the President. That was part of the agreement,” Zille told Radio 702 on Tuesday.
Reacting to this interview, political commentator Mighti Jamie, of the African Research Desk, slammed the DA and accused it of relegating constitutionalism to the dustbin to score parliamentary seats in the new grand coalition called GNU.
“So the DA does not care about constitutionalism and rule of law anymore? They don’t care about corruption and cadre deployment anymore?
“Helen Zille says part of the deal is that they will not vote against Ramaphosa in a no-confidence motion related to the Phala Phala matter. This is unconstitutional and she may have spilt a critical secret piece of information by mistake.
“The GNU deal itself which I have read does not mention blanket protection for people from no-confidence votes. Otherwise it would be unlawful and unreasonable. Even if such a back-door deal exists in a verbal contract it is still unconstitutional. This could make the whole GNU contract null and void,” he said.
Jamie said the Constitution has clear guidelines that stipulate what qualifies as unconstitutional conduct from the president. “All members of parliament must apply their minds and honour their oath when they make every vote as public representatives. That means if something comes up they can’t refuse to vote a particular way because of a back room deal,” he said.
On Tuesday, GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron told Newzroom Afrika they were not part of GNU agreement, adding that the GNU parties haven’t agreed on anything relating to the impeachment processes.
“There is a lot of speculation. But the agreement itself does not talk about anything other than the election of the President and Speaker which has been agreed to. It also talks about the President’s prerogative to appoint the cabinet. and the leaders of those parties he would like to appoint t his cabinet,” he said.
Both the ANC and the DA have not addressed these allegations and attempts to get comments from both parties was unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
The Star