JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa’s move for an urgent bid to halt the National Assembly from proceeding with the impeachment inquiry process comes as no surprise.
This is according to the Executive Secretary from the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Lawson Naidoo.
Ramaphosa is seeking to press pause on the proceedings while he challenges the Section 89 report.
After failing to convince parliament, Ramaphosa has now turned to the Western Cape High Court and filed papers seeking an urgent interdict.
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In an affidavit filed on Friday, Ramaphosa argued that there is a possibility and, in fact, a likelihood that the Impeachment Committee will begin the hearing before the Court has made a decision on the Review Application.
According to Ramaphosa, the inquiry to proceed before the review is decided will give rise to considerable prejudice and could cause him irreparable harm.
Lawson said the test for an urgent interdict of this nature is for the President or the applicant to demonstrate that if the interdict is not granted, they would suffer irreparable harm and that it is in the interest of justice that the interdict be granted.
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At the back of this application is the pressing question of the impact on the timeframe and what happens to the work of the impeachment committee.
When Lawson was questioned on this he said, “The president has asked in his papers for anyone who seeks to oppose the application to respond within eight days. So he would certainly be hoping that the matter will be set down for a hearing on the urgent role within the next fortnight. I would presume that the normal rules of court will be dispensed with so that the matter can be heard on an expeditious basis”.
Lawson further added that Ramaphosa will also have to indicate to the court, as he has in his papers, that he has already sought to engage both with the Speaker of the National Assembly and the chairperson of the committee to ask them to pause the proceedings while his review application is heard.
“They have indicated that they will not be doing so and that is clearly the final issue that prompted the president into making this or launching this urgent application today,” Lawson explained.
The president has filed papers in the High Court in Cape Town.
The court is now expected to determine whether the inquiry should be paused pending the outcome of the broader review case.