The Democratic Alliance has dismissed concerns that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s High Court application to challenge the Phala Phala panel report will delay Parliament’s impeachment proceedings, insisting the constitutional process must proceed without interruption.
DA spokesperson Jan de Villiers acknowledged the President’s formal filing in the Western Cape High Court, which seeks to review and set aside the findings of the independent panel investigating the Phala Phala matter. However, de Villiers stressed that the application does not amount to a court interdict and therefore carries no automatic power to suspend the work of the Section 89 Committee.
“The Constitutional Court was quite clear that the processes that form the impeachment committee must now continue and that it must go forward,” de Villiers said. “Only an interdict by a court could potentially stop that. But it does not seem like there’s any intention at least at this stage of the president to ask for such an interdict.”
The legal development comes after the Constitutional Court ruled that Parliament erred in its earlier decision to block impeachment proceedings against the President concerning the Phala Phala incident.
De Villiers reaffirmed the DA’s stance as a party grounded in accountability and procedural integrity. While respecting the President’s constitutional right to seek judicial review, he emphasized that the DA has not predetermined the outcome of the parliamentary inquiry.
“We as the DA have also not made up our minds about what the outcome of such a committee’s process must be,” de Villiers stated. “Whatever the outcome is, we cannot prejudge it. We will transparently follow the evidence and we will not let the fact that we are in a coalition government in any way influence what is right or wrong.”
The party holds five seats on the Section 89 Committee. De Villiers confirmed that the DA’s appointed representatives are seasoned parliamentarians committed to impartiality and evidence-based deliberation.
“They will be 100% impartial in the way that they engage in the committee and in the way that they look at the evidence,” he explained. “They will not be scared that if there is evidence that the president has breached his constitutional duty that he should be impeached, but also they will not for political reasons try and impeach him if the evidence is not there.”
De Villiers called on the committee to move swiftly to finalize its procedural rules and begin hearings, in accordance with timelines established by the Speaker of the National Assembly. Committee members have already been appointed, paving the way for proceedings to commence.
The DA spokesperson concluded that the party’s priority remains upholding the rule of law, ensuring that the committee’s conclusions are driven solely by factual evidence rather than political considerations or coalition dynamics.
