The Democratic Alliance (DA) has welcomed its allocation of five seats on the parliamentary impeachment committee established to consider the impeachment of President Cyril Ramaphosa, with its national spokesperson Jan De Villiers confirming the party will carefully select its representatives.
De Villiers stated that the DA noted the Speaker’s announcement regarding the party’s five members on the committee. He added that the names of the DA representatives must be submitted by next Friday, and the party will take the necessary time to decide on its delegation.
Addressing concerns about the committee’s composition allegedly favouring the President and his coalition partners, De Villiers emphasised the DA’s commitment to the process. “The ANC does not have a major majority in the committee and the DA does have five members,” he said. “I think there’s enough parties that will hopefully look at the evidence and objectively decide what is the basis for impeachment or not.”
The DA spokesperson stressed that the party would not prejudge the outcome and rejected assumptions that the ANC would sabotage the process. “The DA will certainly play its part and make sure that we hold the president accountable if he needs to be held accountable,” De Villiers said, “but we will need to establish the facts and we will let the facts lead us in our decisions.”
On the committee’s formation proceeding despite the President’s stated intention to take the Section 89 panel report on review, De Villiers noted that Parliament is acting in line with the Constitutional Court judgment. He confirmed that the DA has written to the Speaker requesting a preliminary legal opinion on whether the impeachment committee can continue its work while the President’s review application is underway.
The party will be guided by legal advice on both the continuation of the committee during the review process and any potential interdict application by the President. “We will let ourselves be guided by the law and by good legal opinion,” De Villiers said.
The committee’s composition follows a proportional representation approach among parties in Parliament, though not all parties are typically represented on every committee. The DA has committed to approaching its role seriously by examining the evidence presented.
