THE opposition parties do not even want to hear that President Cyril Ramaphosa is allowed not to come to answer questions before the parliamentary committee that is running the process of removing him from office.
The opposition parties said they want Ramaphosa to come in person for questioning.
He said this during a committee meeting. The terms of reference of the committee stated that Ramaphosa may not appear in person to answer questions before the committee.
The terms stated that Ramaphosa can choose to send people to answer his questions or choose not to answer the committee members’ questions.
The MKP, EFF, and ATM groups expressed their opposition to Ramaphosa not appearing before the committee in person.
MKP member, Dr Khanyisile Litchfield-Shabalala, said that it is like the presence of the committee is a waste of time if Ramaphosa will not appear before it.
“For the people of the coalition governing parties, I would like to remind you that we are very busy this year because there is an election. Please do not waste our time. You cannot call us to talk to other people and leave the matter to the owner. Say it now if you want to waste our time then we will let you go on alone.”
EFF member, Ms. Omphile Maotwe, said they want Ramaphosa to speak for himself.
“When he is going to answer questions here in Parliament, he never sent someone to speak for him. When he took the oath here in Parliament, he did not send someone to swear in him. We are still looking for someone to speak for him.”
The chairman of the committee, Mr. Makashule Gana, said that they will still want to get the opinion of the lawyers on this matter.
The committee also extended the time for the groups to propose the name of the person who will lead the evidence in the committee.
This is due to the unavailability of the people whose names were suggested.
Most of the people whose names were suggested said they were busy.
Committee members were given until tomorrow to propose names.
There was a controversy over the name of the person nominated by MKP, Advocate Vuyani Ngwalana.
The committee’s lawyers said that it is possible that Ngwalana is not ready to be the leader of the evidence in the committee because he has criticized Parliament’s decision to reject the report of the team that was tasked to investigate whether there were any violations of terms by Ramaphosa.
It has been said that some people may feel that Ngwalana will do his job biased because of the views he has expressed before.
Gana said on this matter they will wait for the opinion of the lawyers before they make a decision.