Court decries parliament’s handling of Phala Phala

Acting judge and advocate Vuyani Ngalwana has painted a picture of an SA where voters fail to hold politicians to account and allow lawlessness to thrive. 

Ngalwana was ruling on an urgent application by a group of individuals seeking to interdict the City of Tshwane from removing them from their makeshift shelters on the streets of Pretoria.

Ngalwana said that by occupying the sidewalk, in cardboard and plastic structures, the applicants are in violation of municipal bylaws. They cannot remain there, he ruled.

But he ordered the city council to provide them with other accommodation conducive to human habitation until the main application for their removal is heard.

Ngalwana raised misgivings about apparent loopholes in SA’s legal regime.

“Such are the bizarre circumstances of this case that the applicants have, despite breaking the law, and continuing brazenly to do so, nonetheless been successful in securing something resembling their alternative relief in paragraph 4 of the notice of motion,” he said in the judgment handed down on December 4.

“This is more a function of pragmatism and, ironically, the vindication of the rule of law in what is supposed to be a constitutional democracy than the merits of their case.”

Before dealing with the merits of the application before him, Ngalwana commented on lawlessness in SA.

He described the county as a “cesspool of lawlessness”. He cited the example of Jackie Selebi, the police commissioner who was found guilty of corruption.

The acting judge also referred to legislators living beyond their means, before turning his attention to the millions of rand stolen from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm Phala Phala and how parliament dealt with the matter.‘

“An independent panel of jurists, led by a former chief justice, has found that the president no less ‘may have committed’ a serious violation of section 96(2)(a) of the constitution, a serious violation of section 34(1) of PRECCA, serious misconduct in that the president violated section 96(2)(b) of the constitution by acting in a way that is inconsistent with his office, and serious misconduct in that the president violated section 96(2)(b) by exposing himself to a situation involving a conflict between his official responsibilities and his private business,” Ngalwana observed.

“There is even a suggestion that the president may be implicated in money-laundering. The legislature, which is supposed to hold the president accountable, decided that these prima facie findings do not deserve further investigation. The president, under oath at a judicial commission of inquiry, characterised the ruling party as ‘accused number one when it comes to corruption’.”

Ngalwana, who has been critical of the handling of the Phala Phala scandal in his social media accounts, said South Africans have become oblivious to criminality.

“Yet SA voters, like fanatical club football supporters, continue to return the ruling party to power. Voters seem to have become numb to criminality. This is not a political statement. It is an observation on the cosy relationship that South Africans seem to have with criminality. The state of the nation seems to be one of endemic lawlessness,” he said. 

An independent panel led by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo found a case could be made against the president for impeachment over his conduct in the saga. However, the ANC used its parliamentary majority to quash it.

The panel was appointed by parliament.

The Reserve Bank and the public protector cleared Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in the theft of about $580,000 from his Phala Phala farm in 2020. The Hawks are said to be investigating.

Former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges in 2022 against Ramaphosa at the Rosebank police station in Johannesburg for “the theft of millions of US dollars [reportedly more than $4m] concealed within the premises of the president’s Phala Phala farm”. 

Two people were arrested last month over the theft.

Khumalok@businesslive.co.za