Durban — Opposition parties in Parliament are demanding citation in the court application by President Cyril Ramaphosa to review the Section 89 Panel Report.
When Ramaphosa filed his papers in the Constitutional Court recently, he did not cite any political party except panel members and Parliament.
Ramaphosa also cited African Transformation Movement leader Vuyo Zungula, but not his party.
Political parties like EFF and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) slammed Ramaphosa for omitting them despite their substantial interest in the matter which was evident by their submissions to the panel.
On Friday UDM wrote to Ramaphosa’s legal team demanding an amendment to the application to include the parties. In a letter that the Daily News has seen, the UDM through its lawyers Ntanga Nkuhlu Inc said it found it disturbing and curious that Ramaphosa failed to join all the parties represented in the National Assembly as was customarily done.
The UDM stated that Ramaphosa should have at least cited it, EFF and ATM since the three of them had a direct and substantial interest in the matter by virtue of having made submissions to the panel whose decision was being reviewed.
The UDM further stated that the citation of Zungula as an individual was no answer to the issue raised.
The party further said it failed to understand its non-joinder, more especially because the president himself in his response to the panel stated that the panel received submissions from the ATM and EFF, arguing that since the president responded to submission by the parties therefore the non-joinder was in bad faith.
“In the circumstances we are instructed to demand as we hereby do, that your client must effect the necessary amendments and other appropriate procedures to rectify the situation and join all the political parties represented in the National Assembly. More especially the UDM by no later than 5pm on Monday, failing which our client will have no option but to launch an urgent proceedings to compel your client to do so,” read the letter.
The UDM said it was (not) only disturbed by the non-joinder of parties, but also worried that Ramaphosa was abusing court processes to impede Parliament from performing its oversight and accountability activities in respect of his conduct. The party argued that the report was unreviewable.
UDM secretary-general Bongani Msomi confirmed that his party was demanding to be part of the respondents on the president’s review application.
Attempts to get Ramaphosa’s legal team (to respond) were unsuccessful.
Daily News