DA nominates retired judges to serve on Ramaposa impeachment inquiry panel in Parliament
31 August 2022
The DA has nominated three retired judges to serve on the Section 89 Parliamentary Inquiry panel which will conduct a preliminary inquiry for an impeachment process concerning President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala scandal.
The panel will consider whether there is prima facie evidence for Parliament to institute an impeachment process in accordance to Section 89 of the Constitution - the first of its kind since the adoption of the rules a couple of years ago.
Today, we submitted the names of retired judge Jeanette Traverso and retired justices Yvonne Makgoro and Dikgang Moseneke for the purposes of Rule 129D of the National Assembly rules.
All three nominees have vast legal experience and would fully appreciate the role required by the Section 89 Panel and the need for its independence.
Judge Traverso has served as a respected judge for 15 years and in 1994 she became only the second woman to serve as a judge in South Africa. In 2001, she was appointed the Deputy Judge President of the Western Cape High Court, the first woman to hold the position at a High Court in South Africa.
Judge Moseneke has been in the legal fraternity for approximately 40 years, with 15 of these years being in service on the bench. In 2002 he was appointed to the Constitutional Court and 2005 he was appointed Deputy Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa. Moseneke remained Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court until his retirement in May 2016. He was considered to be one of the strongest Judges whilst sitting on the Constitutional Court.
Justice Mokgoro was appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1994, where she served a 15- year term until 2009. She is also experienced in academia as a law lecturer, having worked within the Department of Jurisprudence of the University of Bophuthatswana from 1984. She ultimately was appointed as an Associate Professor and served in this position until 1991. From 1992 to 1993 she served as an Associate Professor at the University of Western Cape.
Following the flagrant disregard for the rules of Parliament in the plenary yesterday by Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula, it is clear that we need to ensure that we explore all parliamentary avenues available to hold the President accountable. The Speaker has shown that she’s determined to render Parliament useless and continue the carnage by some of her predecessors.
Last night’s disastrous parliamentary session reinforces the need for an ad hoc committee to investigate the President and the extent to which state entities are alleged to have been abused. We will continue fighting for this to happen.
This panel will now be appointed by the Speaker in accordance with the rules. Following the appointments, the panel must make a recommendation to the Speaker and the House within 30 days. We will monitor this process closely.
Issued by Siviwe Gwarube, Chief Whip of the Official Opposition, 31 August 2022
