Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa will be answering oral questions, including those related to his Phala Phala farm theft incident, in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
This emerged during the meeting of the National Assembly Programme Committee yesterday (Thursday).
Briefing the meeting of the committee, National Assembly secretary Masibulele Xaso said two sessions were scheduled for Ramaphosa to answer questions on August 30 and September 29.
In one of the questions, ATM leader Vuyo Zungula will ask whether Ramaphosa had considered it prudent to take the nation into his confidence on the serious allegations surrounding his farm that had divided the country and caused immeasurable harm to its reputation.
He will also ask whether Ramaphosa, with the benefit of hindsight, has found that he could have responded differently to the serious allegations surrounding him with regard to the entire saga.
Zungula had pushed for the president to be summonsed before Parliament went into recess in mid-June.
Xaso informed MPs that National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had deemed the motion by Zungula compliant.
“There is now a process under way for a panel to be set up to look into the matter,” he said.
Parties have until September 1 to submit names of people they would want to serve on the panel.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh asked about the time-frame and when the panel would start with its work.
Mapisa-Nqakula said the work of the panel would take 30 days after appointment of the members.
“Members have up to 1 September to make submissions and we will announce the panel, and the panel will immediately start. It has 30 days from that time,” she said.
Xaso explained that after Mapisa-Nqakula had received the names of nominees to serve on the panel, they would establish the availability of the selected names.
“It could very well happen that a particular person says ‘I am not available’ and we must move to the next name. We will try to really speed up that process,” Xaso said, adding that they would finalise procurement as the process involved such matters.
Early this month, Mapisa-Nqakula found the proposed Section 89 motion by the ATM compliant with the rules of the National Assembly and asked parties to recommend persons to form part of an independent panel of experts.
She also requested the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence to consider specific allegations arising out of the Phala-Phala matter.
This was after she received a letter from DA leader John Steenhuisen asking her to establish an ad hoc committee to investigate several allegations relating to the farm.
Mapisa-Nqakula declined the request as she deemed some of the allegations mentioned by the DA could be considered by existing parliamentary structures, including the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.
Cape Times