The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) wants Parliament to revisit the Phala Phala Independent Panel report.
This comes as the vultures are circling in on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC, following the governing party’s disastrous showing at the 2024 national general elections.
The ANC’s majority in Parliament was reduced to 40% or just 159 seats from a high of 204 in the past elections.
The country’s governing party won 159 out of 400 seats in the country’s National Assembly after last week’s general election.
This is the first time that the ANC has lost its outright majority in the National Assembly since the dawn of democracy 30 years ago.
In the previous election in 2019, the governing party had won 230 seats.
Now that the party has lost its majority, which it used to cover up the Phala Phala farm scandal, things are set to change with many parties circling in on Ramaphosa.
According to the SABC News report, this is the view of the Freedom Front Plus, one of the parties that did well in the national general elections.
FF Plus leader Dr Pieter Groenewald told SAFM that the Phala Phala Independent Panel report should be reintroduced in Parliament, with its chief whip Dr Corné Mulder saying the ANC can no longer shield its president or its members from accountability through its majority in Parliament.
“The fact of the matter is that if South Africa is now under the current situation of coalitions and no single party has the majority, it will set a new example of keeping the executive to account. The is part of that process where we need to go back and revisit those reports including the Zondo report and set the tone of how we as South African move forwards,” he said.
Mulder added that he was confident that the 7th administration would be able to lead Parliament in the right direction after Ramaphosa was exonerated by various institutions, including the public protector and Sars.
Opposition political parties negotiating with the ANC on possible coalitions have indicated that they do not want Ramaphosa as part of their deal. This includes the newly-formed uMkhonto weSizwe Party.
Last week in a statement, the party welcomed the investigation into two sons of Deputy President Paul Mashatile regarding three contracts that were awarded under alleged suspicious circumstances by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development.
The FF Plus said it views the decision as a positive step to establish whether the prescribed tender processes were lawfully and correctly followed, and whether the relevant companies and persons can indeed render the services for which they have been contracted.
The FF Plus lodged a complaint with the public protector in February, 2024, following reports by Network24 indicating that a company of which Mashatile’s two sons, Thabiso Mashatile and Tinyiko Mvelase were directors, was awarded three contracts by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development in a space of just three months.
“It appears that the three contracts were awarded under suspicious circumstances. The PP’s decision to launch an investigation confirms the FF Plus’s view on the matter.
“It is suspect that the deputy president’s two sons became directors of the company – Ngwato and Manzi Group – just when the tenders were awarded,’’ Groenewald said.
The Star